BENGALURU: As the four-day special session of the Karnataka legislature concluded on Thursday, the State government announced an interim input subsidy of Rs 2,500 each for around 50 lakh drought-hit farmers, involving an estimated expenditure of Rs 1,250 crore, while awaiting assistance from the Centre under the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF).
Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, responding to the drought debate in the Assembly, offered to lead an all-party delegation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking a farm loan waiver by the Centre.
The chief minister told the Assembly that the State was willing to bear its share of the financial burden if the Centre agreed to the waiver.
The offer came when BJP and JDS legislators staged a walkout, demanding farm loan waiver of up to Rs 2 lakh per farmer.
“We must sustain our farmers amid the drought situation. Just as the Central government has waived loans worth lakhs of crores for industrialists, it should waive farmers’ loans as well. We are ready to bear the State’s share of the cost. I will seek an appointment with the Prime Minister and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Let them be partners in sharing the burden. Even if we have to scrap four projects, I am ready. I don’t want confrontation, I want cooperation,” Shivakumar said.
CM urges Oppn to join delegation to Centre
CM DK Shivakumar referred to the farm loan waiver announced by the UPA government under then PM Manmohan Singh, and urged Opposition leaders to join the delegation to the Centre. “Whether it is 50:50, 60:40 or 70:30 formula, whatever the ratio, please help secure assistance for us from the Central government,” he appealed to the Opposition. He also spoke in the Council.
Deputy CM and Revenue Minister G Parameshwara said 177 of the state’s 240 taluks had been declared drought-hit, and the government would assess the losses as per NDRF norms. The losses have been preliminarily estimated at around `40,000 crore, and a memorandum seeking assistance would be submitted to the Centre at the earliest.
“Anticipating NDRF assistance, the State government will, with immediate effect, provide an input subsidy of Rs 2,500 per farmer. This will cost the State exchequer Rs 1,250 crore, which is not a small amount. We will also extend a helping hand to farmers in other ways,” Parameshwara said. The moratorium on repayment of crop loans had been extended from 36 months to 60 months, providing additional time to farmers facing financial distress, he said. Dr
Parameshwara also proposed that the Assembly pass a resolution urging the Centre to declare the drought a national disaster, noting that 17-18 states were facing severe drought conditions.
Leader of Opposition R Ashoka, however, termed the Rs 2,500 input subsidy inadequate and reiterated the demand for a farm loan waiver.
Ashoka said the CM had an opportunity to “prove himself the son of a farmer and shed his realtor image” by taking a decision on farm loan waiver, despite the financial difficulties involved. Shivakumar hit back, saying he did business and what was wrong with it.
The special session, originally scheduled for three days from Monday to discuss drought and the Dr K Kasturirangan report on the Western Ghats, was extended by a day. Speaker G S Patil said the legislature conducted business for 25 hours and 45 minutes.
Patil defends cloud seeding; Ashoka says Rs 28 cr wasted
Former minister HK Patil defended the government’s cloud-seeding exercise, saying it was a scientific method used across the world to induce rainfall. However, he admitted that the timing was not right and that the exercise should have been undertaken three months earlier.
Ashoka countered that the exercise was nothing but an “illegal deal” and alleged that Rs 28 crore had gone waste.
Ranebennur Congress MLA Prakash Hukkeri, whose son’s firm got the tenders for the cloud seeding, said it could be done even in October as Centre has SoP. “There was comprehensive research done by the Centre and the findings should be circulated to the states”, he urged.
The hygroscopic method could be adopted during the monsoon and the glaciogenic later between August and October, he claimed arguing that the cloud seeding was not delayed.