Kedarlingaiah Hiremath, president of the Zilla Raitha Horata Samiti, has said that the farmers of Jewargi taluk, who incurred crop losses owing to the failure of the monsoon this year, will launch an indefinite stir with their bullock carts inside the Vikas Soudha complex demanding compensation and urging the government to take up drought relief works, from Tuesday.
Mr. Hiremath, who is also a senior leader of the Janata Dal (Secular), told presspersons on Sunday that if the district administration and police prevented the farmers from staging their indefinite protest inside the Vikas Soudha, they would launch a ‘Chakka Jam’ agitation on the Gulbarga-Jewargi National Highway.
“We have no other alternative but to intensify the stir as the government and the officials have been insensitive and indifferent to the 16-day long indefinite dharna in front of the tahsildar’s office at Jewargi,” he said.
Taking exception to the attitude of the legislators to the problems faced by the drought-hit farmers in the State, Mr. Hiremath said it was shocking to note that only 22 of the 224 MLAs were present in the house when the Assembly took up a discussion on the drought situation in the State.
Of them, only five were from the districts which had been declared as drought-hit.
Mr. Hiremath said that against the demand of Rs. 3,200 crore by the State for taking up drought relief works and provide compensation to farmers who had lost their crops, the Union government had sanctioned Rs. 1,540 crore and this should be equitably distributed among the 24 lakh farmers in 136 taluks which had been declared as drought hit. For Kalaburagi district, the government should release at least Rs. 300 crore to enable the individual farmers get Rs. 25,000 a hectare as compensation.
