BANGALORE: Pomegranate farmers from 13 districts in the state have threatened to commit suicide if the government fails to waive loans borrowed by them from nationalised, souharda and co-operative banks to grow the crop which failed this year due to pests.
Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Abdul Nayeem R Kushtagi, President of the Akhila Karnataka Dalimbe Belegarara Horata Samitee, alleged that government had encouraged them to spend up to Rs 70,000 per acre with promises of great financial returns. “We took bank loans for cultivating Pomegranate. When it looked like our crops would fail, we borrowed more from loans. Repossession of our lands seems best,” he said.