GADAG: Farmers in Gadag district are demanding the immediate commencement of distributing drought relief as several people who own small pieces of farmland have started migrating to cities in search of jobs for survival.
The farmers said the Central team visited the neighbouring district of Vijayanagar. Since the whole Gadag district has now been declared as drought affected, the processes of relief measures should be completed as soon as possible. Farmers in the district had been suffering losses for the past one year due to crop loss, forcing them to migrate to cities to find employment, they said.
Several members of the BJP, Gen Z Voters and Citizens Forum took to the streets in protest over the alleged exclusion of the district from drought relief. Gadag MLA HK Patil, who participated in a protest organised by farmers in Mulgund, has warned the government that he would resign from his legislative seat if the Gadag taluk was not declared drought-hit by October 10.
After the MLA’s protest, the government conducted field inspections in Gadag, Ron and Mundaragi taluks. Based on the inspection report, the government officially added these three taluks to the drought-hit list recently. Consequently, all taluks in the district now fall under the drought-affected category.
Somappa Naragund, a farmer from Ron, said, “It is good that all taluks of Gadag are now in the drought-hit list. But many farmers are now facing a financial crisis and are migrating to other places in search of jobs. Hence, the process of distributing compensation should be expedited.”
Patil said, “There was a delay in declaring the taluks in Gadag as drought-hit. After a discussion in the Assembly, the government ordered a field inspection, after which it declared Gadag, Ron and Mundargi taluks as drought-affected. This has brought relief to the farmers of the region. I urge the government to distribute the compensation amount soon.”
