BELAGAVI: Despite the Centre unwilling to provide generous funds to the state, Karnataka CM BS Yediyurappa announced in Belagavi that his government has decided to provide the highest compensation to the farmers who suffered crop losses in the recent floods and rains.
"For the first time in the country, the farmers are set to get the highest compensation for the losses they suffered," the CM said.
Speaking to reporters on his arrival in Sambra airport, Belagavi on Tuesday, Yediyurappa said that the government would give Rs 16,500/hectare compensation to the farmers facing losses in the dry lands, Rs 23,000/hectare in irrigated lands and Rs 25,000/hectare to farmers taking up horticulture.
"Rs 50,000 compensation would be given to each of handloom owners if they suffered damages to their units. I will tour all the districts again after 15 to 20 days to review the situation of families which are affected by the recent floods Already Rs 5 lakh has been announced to the families who lost their houses,'' he said. "In the first phase, the central government has given Rs 1200 crore and we have hopes of getting more funds in the next phase," he added.
Speaking about the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly polls, the CM claimed that BJP would win any election which was going to be held in the country henceforth and said that the people of Maharashtra would not forget the pro-people developmental works which CM Devendra Fadnavis took up in the state and that the Shiv Sena-BJP coalition would win the Maharashtra elections by a big margin. "As already said by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India would soon become a "Congress-free'' country,'' he added.
When asked about the statements of MLA Basavaraj Patil-Yatnal who took on the party for neglecting flood-relief, the Chief Minister said that Patil-Yatnal had been instructed to not to make any controversial statements. In response to a question that some disgruntled leaders of BJP in the state were ready to join Congress for being denied party tickets in the coming by-election, Yediyurappa said that he had not come across any such developments.
Commenting on the Auradkar Committee report on police pay scale, he announced that the report would be implemented soon and that the policemen would get the good news shortly.
The Chief Minister also said that Revenue Minister R Ashok may not be able to visit Belagavi or neighbouring districts to review the disastrous flood situation due to various other works. "I have already visited Belagavi's affected areas five to six times now. For that matter, Ashok has given appropriate answers to questions of floods in the recent winter session,'' he said.
Even as senior BJP leaders like Umesh Katti, Ashok Pujari and Raju Kage have come out openly criticising the party in the recent times for neglecting them, the CM said that he recently met Katti at the latter's residence. "None of them including Katti, Pujari or Kage were disappointed as speculated by some leaders," he said.