Farmers in the region have expressed concern that the promised loan waiver by the State government may not be fully implemented till the completion of the election process.
Kurubur Shanthakumar, President, State Sugarcane Cultivators Association, said that farmers are in dire straits but politicians, irrespective of the party, were concentrating on the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. He alleged that governance has taken a back seat.
“Most farmers are yet to receive the benefits of the loan waiver and now we are told that the government is waiting for a clarification from the Election Commission on making the payments’’, he said. Given the uncertainty, farmers are unable to raise fresh loan and have to wait for the loan waiver benefit to kick in.
But there are fears that loan waiver could be delayed until the model code of conduct is lifted on completion of the election processes and hence farmers may be without work till the first week of June.
“Farmers are unable to clear the outstanding amount due to financial crunch owing to crop loss last year and delayed payment by the sugarcane factories. Besides, nearly ₹4,000 crore is due to sugarcane cultivators from various cane crushing units who have withheld payment for the current year’’, according to Mr. Shantha Kumar.
The elections and the model code of conduct has come in handy for politicians to wriggle out of the situation and they are seeking additional time to fulfil the promise, said Atahalli Devaraj, a farmer and member of the Sugarcane Cultivators Association.
Some of the farmers have received a communiqué from the government that their loan has been cleared but the banks are not issuing no due certificate on the grounds that the money was yet to be credited against their account, Mr. Devaraj added.
Though a majority of the farmers do not take up agriculture during peak summer as in March, they need enough funds to prepare the field and purchase fertilizer and seeds during the pre-monsoon rains, according to Mr. Devaraj. There are farmers with borewell connection or have land adjacent to lakes and may be keen to grow short-term crops but are unable to raise loan, he said.
In the meantime, the Consortium of Indian Farmers Association that includes the Sugarcane Cultivators Association, has urged the Election Commission of India to make it mandatory on political parties to fulfil the promises made in the election manifestos.
The farmers said agricultural issues are raised only during elections and promises are made during elections only to be ignored afterwards and wanted such political parties to be derecognised.
