Focus of next budget will be on farm market reforms: Kumaraswamy

Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy says he is trying to find a permanent solution to cane growers’ problems.

After announcing waiver of farm loans in the State Budget this year, Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy will focus on remunerative prices for farmers through market reforms in the next budget, to be presented in February.

“The efforts towards welfare of farmers, which we started this year with loan waiver, will not end here. The next budget will focus on getting scientific prices for farm produce in Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) yards,” he told The Hindu .

The government is focussing on APMCs as a large number of farmers sell their produce through them, he said, adding that already efforts were on to find how the marketing system can be improved.

He expressed concern about sugarcane farmers, particularly those from Belagavi, Bagalkot and Vijayapura districts who are facing the problem of sugar factories not paying dues almost every year. This has led to their taking up protests in Belagavi whenever the winter session of the legislature begins. “I am working towards finding a permanent solution to the woes of sugarcane farmers,” the Chief Minister said.

Accusing the Opposition BJP of indulging in false propaganda that his government was facing political instability, he appealed to farmers to understand the consequences of such a propaganda. “It will be difficult for any government to get the cooperation of bureaucracy if there is a feeling of political instability. My opponents are trying to pose such a problem to prevent the government from taking up major development works,” he said. However, claiming that this had not cowed him, he said, “But I can say that I am four steps ahead of where a single-party Chief Minister would have been in my place.”

On the north

Recalling that it was he who decided to introduce the system of holding the legislature session in Belagavi in 2006, during his first tenure as CM, Mr. Kumaraswamy said it had helped in the development of Belagavi. “Nearly ₹2,000 crore has been sanctioned to the district since 2006 for various infrastructure development works,” he said.

However, he admitted that there was a dire need to give a push to the industrial sector in Belagavi. He said he was working towards getting various industries to come to this northern city of Karnataka.