K.S. Puttannaiah, MLA, has criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not waiving the farm loans taken from nationalised banks. He was talking to presspersons on Monday.
“The Prime Minister has announced waiver of interest on farm loans for two months. Was that meant for the funeral of farmers? They [farmers] wanted a complete loan waiver,” Mr. Puttannaiah said.
Referring to the instances of farmers’ suicide due to the agrarian crisis, he said that no civilised society would tolerate such a situation. Mr. Puttannaiah urged the Union and State governments to implement scientific programmes and schemes to prevent farmers’ suicide.
The State had been witnessing droughts for consecutive years since 2002 and crops worth around Rs. 25,000 crore had been damaged so far. However, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah requested Mr. Modi to release only Rs. 4,000 crore, he said and asked “Who will pay the remaining amount ?”
Mr. Puttannaiah targeted those who study the drought situation and said they don’t have the basic knowledge about land and agriculture.
To take up farmers’ issues, the Karnataka Sarvodaya Party would be merged with the Swaraj Abhiyan floated by Yogendra Yadav.
A rally would be organised by the party at Bengaluru on January 12 and names of candidates for the next Assembly election would be announced there.
