Taking exception to the delay in disbursement of crop loss compensation and the apathy of the State and Union governments towards the same, farmers of Dharwad district have threatened to launch a protest if their demands were not met immediately.
Addressing presspersons in Dharwad on Wednesday, farmer leader Mallikarjun Balangoudar said because of the drought, crops grown in kharif and rabi had withered leading to huge crop loss and there had been inordinate delay in disbursement of compensation.
He said that both the State and the Centre had engaged in passing the buck instead of coming to the rescue of the farmers. “While the State government is pointing at Centre for release of compensation as per NDRF norms, the Central leaders are asking the State to release SDRF compensation and that NDRF funds will follow. In this blame game, it is the farming community that is facing acute financial problems,” he said.
Meanwhile, along with the drinking water crisis, the fodder shortage was forcing farmers to sell their cattle to slaughterhouse. What was even worse was that instead of mitigating the sufferings of the farmers, both Congress and BJP were busy preparing for the elections, he alleged.
Mr. Mallikarjun urged the government to fix ₹10,000 per quintal as MSP for green gram, bengal gram and cotton, ₹5,000 per quintal for onion and ₹4,000 per quintal for maize.
He urged the government to release crop insurance compensation immediately and also demanded loans up to ₹10 lakh at 1% interest rate to the farmers.
