The members of the Raita Sena, Karnataka, have urged the Karnataka Government to raise and address the burning issues of North Karnataka during the ongoing Winter session of the legislature in Belagavi.
Farmers, led by president of the sena Veeresh Sobaradmath, staged a protest outside the office of Karnataka Neeravari Nigam Ltd. in Dharwad on Saturday and demanded that priority should be on initiating works pertaining to utilisation of the share of waters allocated to Karnataka in the Mahadayi basin.
Addressing the protesters, Veeresh Sobaradmath demanded that the issue should be thoroughly discussed and steps taken to initiate the long-pending works.
He said that the although Karnataka had received a share of 177 tmcft of water in the Krishna basin, the Government had not come up with projects to utilise the same and help farmers. Raita Sena would be forced to approach the court if no immediate action was taken by the Government, he said.
He said the farmers were facing hardships as they were not getting remunerative price for the yield. Therefore MSP should be announced for all the crops and steps taken to prevent exploitation by middlemen, he said, adding that a permanent procurement centre should be opened in all APMCs so that farmers could sell their farm produce directly to the Government.
Farmer leaders Gurappa Chouvaraddi, Mahesh Navalli, Dharmappa Somgoudar and others led the protest and demanded that steps should be taken immediately as per recommendations of D.M. Nanjundappa committee on regional imbalance and offices of government departments should be shifted immediately to the Suvarna Soudha.
