Farmers protest with dung for infrastructure

Bengaluru, NT Bureau: Farmers from the Bengaluru South Taluk had come out in protest against the Authorities in Bengaluru on Monday with their demands for farmer friendly infrastructure, and against harassment from officials of the Forest Department.

Led by retired Justice Santosh Hegde, farmers expressed their outrage by applying cow dung on their bodies, outside the Deputy Commissioner's office in Kempegowda Road.

Most of the farmers who hail from Kanakpura road, put forth a number of demands. Tilled agricultural lands in 30 villages under the Taluk shall be destroyed and revived for farmers, with full rights transferred to them. Road infrastructure near Somanahalli should include a service road for local motorists.

A bypass road from Kaggalipura-SalunhunseUdipalya should be constructed to mitigate traffic. Milk producers, reports say, claim that their incentives have been stalled for seven months and demanded it be released immediately.

Finally, with the water crisis in mind, farmers demanded that the rain water be diverted to lakes and the groundwater table be revived.

Farmers have been on the receiving end of droughts, as crop failure and lack of water sources have put them in life threatening situations. In October 2023, the state announced 216 out of 236 taluks to be drought-hit.