Members of a few farmers' organisations joined hands here on Tuesday to take out a rally in protest against the ministerial conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) being held at Nairobi. The conference plans to deliberate on the implementation of certain economic policies which would be detrimental to farming community, the protesters alleged.
The rally in which leaders of the Karnataka Pranta Raitha Sangha, the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha, Hasiru Sene and the Karnataka Growers’ Federation participated, began at the Hemavati Statue Circle here and culminated on the premises of the Deputy Commissioner’s office, where they staged a dharna.
The protesters said that the economic policies introduced in recent years were all in favour of the corporate sector at the cost of farmers. The Nairobi meeting was aimed at speeding up the implementation of various anti-farmer policies. Successive governments had failed to address the problems of farmers, who were reeling under crop and financial losses and committing suicides, alleged the protesters.
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They submitted an appeal to the Deputy Commissioner. Their demands included proper relief to farmers who were suffering losses owing to vagaries of weather and irregular supply of power.
Seeking continuous supply of power for at least 12 hours a day, the protesters demanded that land be provided to landless farmers, agriculture loans be waived to prevent farmers from committing suicide and salary of workers enrolled under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act be increased. They submitted a memorandum in this regard to Deputy Commissioner K.M. Janaki.
H.R. Naveen Kumar, district president of KPRS; B.S. Jayaram of the Karnataka Growers’ Federation; and Kottur Srinivas, district president of KRRS, were among those present.
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Conference plans to expedite implementation of certain policies, which are detrimental to farming community, they say