Farmers to lay siege to Soudha today

BENGALURU: As the legislature session begins on Monday, members of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha and Hasiru Sene are planning to lay siege to Vidhana Soudha, demanding that the state government repeal its ordinances on farm laws.

Raitha Sangha leader Kodihalli Chandrashekar on Sunday said that while the Centre withdrew the three farm laws, the state government is dilly-dallying. The issue was brought to the notice of Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai during the last legislature session in Belagavi and he agreed to take it up during the Bengaluru session. But the government has not set in motion any decision to nullify these pieces of legislation. 

‘Farmers will be pushed to streets’

Farmer Kodihalli Chandrashekar said the government should have shown its seriousness by holding official meetings. This shows the anti-farmer stand of the state government, he commented.

The laws planned by the government would push farmers and their families onto the streets and take away their lands. Doing away with AP MC centres would affect farmers as they will not have proper markets to sell their produce, he said.

Also, farmers who were affected by last year’s floods have not been compensated, while many others have not got Bagair Hukum Saguvali papers, which allows them to cultivate lands, they added. As the government has allowed largescale mining in the Malnad region, elephants are moving to farmlands increasing human-animal conflicts, he said. On the Godavari-Cauvery-Pennar river linking project, he added that Karnataka would stand to lose, while other states would gain.

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