Farmers have been hit hard by crop loss and house damage in floods over the last three years. Also, harvested crops were either not sold or sold for less than remunerative prices during the lockdown. However, these issues barely came up for discussion in the just-concluded Winter session. Conspicuously missing was also any discussion on the withdrawal of amendments to the laws in the State, despite the Union Government repealing the farm laws, farmers say.
“Neither the Government nor the legislators initiated any discussion on issues concerning farmers. The Opposition did not appear interested in raising questions on farmers’ welfare and the ruling party was not interested in suggesting solutions,” said Choonappa Pujari, Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha leader.
Collapsed houses
Over 1.3 lakh houses were damaged in the two floods that hit in 2019, 2020, and 2021. Of them, 40% were completely destroyed.
At government rates of a compensation of ₹5 lakh per house that needs to be completely rebuilt would add up to ₹2,600 crore.
But this has not been paid fully, farmers say. “Of the ₹5 lakh, only around ₹1 lakh per house has been paid to farmers. There is no hope that they will receive the pending amount soon. What is more, there are errors and deliberate mistakes in the selection of beneficiaries and the distribution of compensation. There have been cases where MLAs have included their supporters in the lists and removed the names of those opposed to them,” Mr. Pujari alleged.
Sidagouda Modagi, Bharatiya Krishik Samaj president, blamed legislators for holding the Government accountable. He describes MLAs and MLCs as “paper tigers” who do things only for publicity. “There is a clash of interest between their two roles. On the one hand, they own sugar factories and other agri-related business. On the other, they are making rules to regulate these businesses. How can they be fair and neutral in these situations?” he asked.
“The issue of sugar factories delaying payments to sugarcane supplying farmers remains unresolved,” emphasised Badagalapura Nagendra, Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha president. “All the owners says that they will pay Fair and Remunerative Price to farmers. But that is not enough to cover the costs. And almost none of them pay Minimum Support Price, which is higher than FRP. The problem is that we can not bind the factories to MSP,” he added.
“According to our calculations, we can be paid up to ₹6,000 per tonne of sugarcane. Farmers are hardly getting ₹2,500 to ₹2,900 per tonne now,” he said. According to him, factories pay farmers only for the sale of sugar and not other products like molasses and other chemicals, bio-fertiliser and electricity.
‘Not allowed’
Satish Jarkiholi, KPCC working president, maintained that several attempts were made by the Congress members to raise issues related to farmers, but were brushed aside by the Government. “Our members wanted special discussions under Rule 69 about two issues – pending irrigation projects in north and south Karnataka and the protest of farmers against the new farm laws. But both were not allowed. Even the discussion on north Karnataka was wound up in a short time. The Government is not giving the legislature the importance it deserves,” he said.
