The recent remarks of Minister for Sugar and Agricultural Marketing Shivanand Patil that farmers wished for drought to get a loan waiver, came in for flak from Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS) whose members staged a rasta roko on Wednesday.
The farmers assembled at the Outer Ring Road-Mysuru Nanjangud Road junction and raised slogans against the Minister besides seeking his apology and resignation.
Hoskote Basavaraju who led the farmers agitation said that the Minister’s flippant remarks betray the mindset of the ruling elite.
Addressing the farmers Mr. Basavaraju said the government itself owes money to farmers and said that the arrears due to the sugarcane cultivators was yet to be cleared. He said the Chief Minister should reprimand the minister and warn him against making such remarks in future.
Mr. Basavaraju said the government should also take initiative to ensure that the sugar mills clear the arrears due to the farmers. In addition, the government should withdraw the three contentious Acts opposed by the farmers that includes the Land Reforms Amendment Act and the APMC Amendment Act.
“If there is further delay in the withdrawal of the contentious Act then it will be deemed that the government was anti-farmer,” said Mr. Basavaraju.
“It is not the farmers who are in debt but the country is indebted to them as we produce food and feed over 1.3 billion people. This being the case the Minister’s statement was not only bad taste but smacked of arrogance,” he said.
