CM, Ministers are having fun while 2,500 farmers have committed suicide, says LOP

Leader of the opposition and BJP MLA R. Ashok on Friday said, that the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and other Ministers are having fun while over 2,500 farmers have ended their lives due to farm distress.

Addressing presspersons after visiting flood-affected areas, at Nesargi village in Belagavi district, Mr. Ashok said, “Official records show these many number of farmers died due to farm distress after the Congress came to power in the State. Farmers are facing severe problems, but the State government is not bothered.” He said, “Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, Agriculture Minister N. Chaluvarayaswami and others who should have rushed to support farmers are having fun in Bengaluru instead.”

“The State government is trying to divert the attention of the people away from the real problems. The Chief Minister is campaigning about the guarantee schemes by sharing stories of a woman who bought a refrigerator by using the Gruha Lakshmi receipts. But he [CM] is not bothered about dying farmers,” he said.

To a query, he said that the BJP was not playing politics over flood damage. “We have come here to see for ourselves the extend of damage to crops and inform the State government about it. The soybean crops are completely damaged. If the State government was alive, it should have surveyed crop loss, sent a report to the centre and sought compensation. But no such thing is being done.

“Mr. Siddaramaiah keeps repeating he will be Chief Minister for five years. What is the point in staying in power if he does no good to the people?” he said.

He said the State government should release crop loss compensation in addition to the amounts fixed under National Disaster Response Fund rules. “It is around ₹8,500 per acre now. It is not enough. The State government should release at least ₹25,000 per acre. It should remember that the farmers would have earned lakhs of rupees if he had sold the harvest. In such situations, farmers do not expect profits. But the farmers should be able to make good the loss suffered on inputs like seeds, fertilizers and pesticides. The government should release special grants,” he said.