‘CM should ask banks to waive interest on loans’

Shobha Karandlaje, MP, said on Saturday that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah should hold a meeting of bankers and get them to waive the interest on the loans to farmers.

Addressing presspersons here, Ms. Karandlaje said that Mr. Siddaramaiah should also get them to extend the loan repayment period by at least six months.

The State government had assured the sugarcane growers that it would pay them Rs. 2,500 per tonne of cane grown. But this had remained on the paper and aggravated the crisis.

Instead of being proactive in dealing with the situation, the State government was taking steps at a snail’s pace. Despite the grave agrarian crisis in the State, none of the Ministers were touring the affected districts, she said.

Ms. Karandlaje said that the State government had failed in dealing with the crisis of alleged corruption in the office of the Lokayukta.

Though all political parties and social activists had held protested and demanded the sacking of the Lokayukta Y. Bhaskar Rao, the government was a mute spectator to it, she alleged.