Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav has urged Union and State governments to restructure farmers’ loans at nationalised banks and cooperative societies in order to save the farmers in distress. He was speaking to media representatives at Kadagamdoddi village, 12 km from Raichur, on Friday night after visiting drought-hit villages in the district as part of Samvedana Yatra.
He held that mere waiving of farm loans of a couple of years would not help farmers much, but restructuring the loans so as to benefit the farmers would do.
“If it was possible for successive governments to restructure huge amount of corporate loans for safeguarding the interests of the business community, why cannot it be possible to do the same for saving farmers in distress?” he questioned.
Declare drought-hit areas
Mr. Yadav demanded that the Union government declare drought-hit areas across the country and take up relief and rehabilitation work to save the farmers. He said that drought was the reality even as per the government yard-stick.
“As per the yardstick of the Union government, an area can be declared drought-hit if there is 10 per cent deficit rains and 20 per cent affected area. Drought is a reality in most parts of the country as per this yardstick. The Union government should immediately declare these areas drought-hit and take up relief work,” he said.
Compensation
Mr. Yadav also urged the State government to take some immediate measures to save farmers in the State. "The entire crop loss compensation system needs to be undergo a fundamental transformation, completely eliminating arbitrariness in disbursement. The amount of compensation should be equal to the amount of crop loss. It should also provide sufficient fodder free of cost at least in severely drought-hit areas," he said.
Expressing dissatisfaction over “poor implementation” of Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Act, Mr. Yadav urged the government to ensure that people in villages, particularly in drought-hit areas, would get sufficient work under the Act.
"People in Yadgir and Raichur districts told us that they did not get work when they badly needed it during drought and many people migrated to Bengaluru, Pune and other cities in search of a living," he said.
As a long-run initiative for addressing the agrarian crisis, India should fight for keeping at least her farm sector out of the ambit of the World Trade Organisation.
Writer Devanur Mahadev, farmers' leader Chamarasa Malipatil, Swaraj Abhiyan leaders Avikh Saha from Kolkata, Sharadha from Hyderabad, Doddipalya Narasimha Murthy from Bengaluru and others were present.
