“What are you asking sir? You know our conditions well. New Year celebrations? For whom? All festivals have become meaningless for us,” this was how Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS) vice-president Basavaraj Malalli reacted when asked about the relevance of New Year celebrations for farmers in the wake of drought and mounting interest on agricultural loans.
He told The Hindu that the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government and Congress government in the State had failed to provide succour to farmers, particularly sugarcane growers who are in distress due to unscientific prices for crops and losses due to drought for the third consecutive year. Growers had been staging agitations for long demanding waiver of crop loans along with interest during 2014-15, 2015-16 and the kharif season of 2016-17.
Mr. Malalli said the KRRS with the support of other farmers’ organisations had launched an indefinite satyagraha outside the Deputy Commissioner’s office, which was withdrawn on the 456th day, the last day of the winter session of the legislature on December 3 by holding a ‘punyatithi’ of the Siddaramaiah government. The farmers were not demanding incentives or tax relief worth millions of rupees but were seeking waiver of only a small amount.
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He said more than thousand farmers had committed suicide owing to their inability to repay bank loans following crop losses during 2015-16 and lack of a helping hand from the government. “Why should the Chief Minister wait for the Centre to announce relief instead of waiving off at least ₹5,000 crore as promised by him?”
Also, the people of Hubballi-Dharwad, Gadag, Belagavi and Bagalkot had been agitating for an out-of-tribunal solution for the Mahadayi dispute.
But, neither the Chief Minister was taking concrete steps nor the Prime Minister was willing to intervene. “Such being the case where farmers are finding themselves in a state of indefinite hopelessness, how can they celebrate New Year or any other festival,” asked Mr. Malalli.
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