M. B. Patil, Minister and Congress leader. File
| Photo Credit: Special arrangement
“The BJP led NDA government is following anti farmer policies,” M. B. Patil, Minister and Congress leader, said on Saturday (August 16, 2026).
“BJP leader Subramanya Swami has said that in the last 12 years, the union government has waived off loans of industrialists of over ₹10 lakh crore. But it is not inclined towards waiving off just ₹2 lakh crore of farmers’ loans.
Former PM Manmohan Singh was the only national leader in this country who waived off farmers’ loans”, he said.
MLA Shivanand Patil also complained that the central government was not protecting the interests of farmers. “Due to its anti farmers policies, even NABARD is not giving loans to farmers”, he said.
They were speaking after inaugurating the grain godown of the Primary Agriculture Cooperative Society in Shirbur village of Babaleshwar taluk in Vijayapura district on Saturday.
M. B. Patil said that whenever farmers were facing a crisis, cooperative institutions had come as a boon to farmers.
“Farmers are facing a serious crisis. The state is facing a severe drought. Farmers have sown two or three times, but lost money and inputs. In such a situation, cooperative societies are supporting farmers”, he said.
“The only long term solution to such climate vagaries is to increase the impounding capacity of the Almatti dam by increasing it height to 524.256 m.
“Farmers in irrigated areas are switching to commercial crops and are becoming financially self-reliant,” the Minister said.
“In order to increase the height, over 70 thousand acres of land need to be submerged and 20 villages have to be relocated. Earlier, the compensation paid to land losers was around thirty thousand crores. However, the amount paid to submerged farmers has increased to sixty thousand crores now”, he said.
M. B. Patil assured that he would work towards reviving the Nandi Cooperative Sugar Factory in Vijayapura district.
“I will work with coperation Minister Laxman Savadi and MLA Shivanand Patil, to save the factory, which is facing financial problems,” he said “This godown will help farmers protect their grains till they get fair prices”, he said. He praised Shivanand Patil for his contribution to the cooperative sector.
DCC Bank president and MLA Shivanand S. Patil said that the cooperative movement was secular and non-partisan. He said around 250 of the 272 rural cooperative societies in Vijayapura district had their own offices. They are giving loans of an average of ₹80,000, which is the highest in the state. The Vijaypura district cooperative bank has an annual transaction of ₹6,000 crore.
He said the bank was supporting rural dairies. “Women of Takkalaki village are collecting 3,000 liters of milk a day due to DCC Bank support, he said. The bank is giving low interest loans for farm house construction,” he said.
Sri Siddalinga Swamiji of the Virakta Math in Basavan Bagewadi, society president Ramanagouda Patil, M. D. Padasalagi
Deputy Registrar of Cooperative Societies S. K. Bhagyashree, DCC CEO S. A. Dhavalagi, Assistant Registrar Chetana Bhavikatti, Training Coordinator R. M. Banagar and others were present.
Published – August 16, 2026 03:10 pm IST
