The farmer leaders are not happy with the sops announced for the farming sector by chief minister D V Sadanand Gowda in the state budget presented by him on Wednesday. There is a widespread feeling among the farmers that the sops announced in the budget do not really reach the needy beneficiaries.
Even if they reach few of the beneficiaries it will be at the fag-end of the financial year and the real benefit would have been fizzled out by that time.
Farmers’ leader Gangadhar Patilkulkarni who was heading the BJP Raitha Morcha in Dharwad district till recently only to move out of the party termed the budget as anti-farmer saying it would push the farmers and rural women in debt trap.
Providing loans either free of interest or with lower rate of interest is not a way of helping the farmers. With drought in majority of the villages, the loans provided to self help groups and others would invariably be used for non-productive purposes and hence would not yield any income to the borrowers, he said.
Gangadhar pointed out that there has been drastic decline in the number of cattle and nothing has been done to save and increase the number of cattle breeds. There is no mention about fodder banks and measures to curb illegal transport of fodder to other states.
The fodder grown in districts which are not affected by drought are being smuggled out to other states. There should be a legislation banning the transport of fodder to other states, he said. He was also sour that Bangalore city had bagged a lion’s share in the allocation of funds at the cost of rest of the state.
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Raveendra Desai of Amminabhavi said the amount earmarked for veterinary department is negligible and almost all the veterinary hospitals in North Karnataka are running short of medicines. The agri budget does not specify how the resources would be augmented.
However Dharwad MP Prahlad Joshi termed the budget as a balanced growth oriented one. Speaking to BS from New Delhi he said it is a good budget with focus on agriculture and cooperative sector.
“The chief minister has maintained the fiscal deficit while allocating funds liberally to needy sectors like irrigation, power, education and social welfare. He has promised funds for providing drinking water to Hubli-Dharwad. Overall a good pro-people budget” Joshi said.
Apart from this, the announcement of introduction of 10 new trains in Karnataka by railway minister Dinesh Trivedi while presenting the railway budget for the year 2012-2013 has not been able to satisfy the people of North Karnataka.
There is widespread disappointment in the region over the railway minister neglecting the interest and aspirations of people of north Karnataka. “Minister of state for railways K H Muniyappa who hails from Karnataka has not been able to impress upon his senior regarding the needs of the people here. He seems to be satisfied by what establishment of a coach factory in his constituency Kolar,” said.