Farmers under the aegis of the Wayanad Famer Collective are gearing up to launch agitations raising a slew of demands, including withdrawal of the budget proposal to hike land tax.
Addressing the media here on Wednesday, E.P. Philipkutty, president of the collective, said the proposal was to raise land tax to ₹404.70 an acre in grama panchayats and ₹809.40 an acre in municipalities. It was ₹40.7 an acre in 2012. Nearly ten-fold increase was effected in land tax in a decade, and it will put farmers in a fix, Mr. Philpkutty said.
While the government raised the tax, it failed to execute infrastructure projects. Agriculture and Irrigation departments are a failure in executing projects to enhance productivity, he alleged.
Though the Supreme Court had awarded 21 tmcft of water of 30 tmcft in Kabani river, a tributary of the Cauvery, in 2018, the successive governments failed to execute projects, he said.
The Irrigation department is only interested in executing huge irrigation projects, and the farming community is against them, as hundreds of families will have to be evicted from the project areas, Mr. Philipkutty said.
The government should spend at least 50% of the Wayanad package announced by the Chief Minister for developing basic infrastructure on land, he added.
Low productivity of crops owing to climate change, rise in prices of fertilizers, recurring floods, and the pandemic have left farmers in deep crisis. Meanwhile, financial institutions, including Kerala Bank, began issuing revenue recovery notices to over 10,000 farmers in the district. Hence, the government should adopt steps to extend the period of repayment of farmer loans to five years, he said.
He called upon the government to earmark funds to tackle wild animal menace.
The organisation will take out a march and stage a dharna in front of the district collectorate on Friday raising the demands, Mr. Philipkutty said.
