BENGALURU: Politicians across party lines have found a novel way to connect farmers stuck with harvested vegetables and fruits, and people waiting for supplies. Using their heft and network, they are collecting the produce and either bringing it into markets or distributing it among the poor.
Byatarayanapura MLA and former Congress minister Krishna Byregowda is helping distressed farmers as well as the common citizen under lockdown. He and his team of volunteers are procuring vegetables from farmers, packing them into ‘household veggie bags’ and handing them over to families in his constituency. Each bag contains about 5-7 kgs of vegetables.
The beneficiaries are migrant labourers, daily wage labourers and others like auto drivers, plumbers, house helps, besides citizens seeking food. What started as an initiative by Zilla Panchayat members five days ago to help vegetable farmers, has now become a trend. Gandhinagar MLA and former KPCC President Dinesh Gundu Rao too procured vegetables from farmers in Devanahalli and distributed them.
Mysore-Kodagu MP Prathap Simha said that farmers in his constituency were in distress over rotting produce, but the problem was that vegetables had to be ferried to Kerala through the border checkpost. The government got in touch with the Kerala authorities and got the checkpost opened. While the APMC network is being used to collect produce, the HOPCOMS network is being used to distribute it to houses in 65 wards of Mysuru.
Bangalore Rural MP DK Suresh and his team too fanned out across his constituency, bought about 1,500 tonnes of vegetables and fruits and distributed the produce among the rural poor. One of the team members told TNIE that the farmers were relieved that their produce was being picked up. Chikkaballapur MP BN Bachegowda instructed his team to move grapes, vegetables and flowers to markets. He also spoke to the government to make good the losses suffered by floriculturists. Grape growers were helped to ferry their overripe produce to wineries and distilleries for production of brandy, MLA Sharath Bachegowda said.
MP Sumalatha Ambareesh said that she has instructed officials to cover villages through APMCs, and that a large area was identified for the new market in Mandya.
HOW IT WORKS
“We are buying directly from farmers with funds from party leaders, volunteers and donors. Vegetables from about 25 farmers in Devanahalli and Sidlaghatta are being procured as and when we have funds. About 30 tonnes of vegetables were bought for Wednesday and Thursday. Over the past four days, we procured vegetables worth about Rs 5 lakh and distributed them to about 5,500 families, and intend to distribute vegetables to at least 1,500 people per day,” said Krishna Byregowda.
