Jt session of Karnataka legislature to begin from February 6

: The joint session of the Karnataka legislature is likely to begin here from February 6 Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy said Friday.

The Chief Minister met Governor Vajibhai Vala at the Raj Bhavan and extended him an invitation to address the join session.

"I met the Governor to discuss with him about the joint session and budget presentation.

I have invited the Governor to address the joint session as per practise.

The session is likely to commence from February 6," Kumaraswamy told reporters here.

The Chief Minister, who also holds the Finance portfolio, had earlier said that he would be presenting the state budget on February 8.

 

Kumaraswamy said he currently was holding the department wise review ahead for the 2019-20 budget next month.

He said he held discussions with farmers leaders from various districts and taken suggestions from them, mainly on electricity, irrigation, crop insurance, seeds, and marketing, among others, so that these could be implemented in the budget to initiate good programmes for them.

Recently in an interview to PTI, Kumaraswamy had said he would fulfil his Rs 46,000-crore loan waiver commitment to farmers "completely" in the Congress-JDS coalition government's second budget that he is scheduled to present on February 8.

Earlier, speaking to reporters after the pre-budget meeting with farmers leaders, Co-Operation Minister Bandeppa Kashyampur said the Chief Minister had announced a farm loan waiver last time and that he would protect farmers' interests in the upcoming budget.

Reiterating that all eligible farmers would get the benefit of loan waiver, he said it is the responsibility of the government.

To a question, Kashyampur said issues faced by farmers on loan waiver like non-matching of their names with Aadhaar card was being addressed with the help of Tahsildars.

"We are are removing several clauses to make it easy for farmers," he said.

Kashyampur said farmers wanted the right Minimum Support Price

for crops and implementation of the Swaminathan committee report, among other things.

He said some farmers pointed out that registration fees for harvesting machine was too high in Karnataka, compared to neighbouring Maharashtra and added that the Chief Minister had taken note of it.