DKS: Give rain-hit farmers 10k per acre

Relief announced by state govt has not reached farmers though Karnataka is facing floods for 3 years, says KPCC chief

By Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

Bengaluru: Following large-scale damage to crops on thousands of acres across the state due to unseasonal rains in the last one month, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) President D.K. Shivakumar has urged the state government to announce crop compensation of Rs 10,000 per acre for the affected farmers.

Shivakumar told the media that most farmers in the state have been orphaned under BJP rule in the past two years.

During the Covid pandemic, farmers were left high and dry without providing them a suitable market for their produce. The relief announced by the government remains on paper and has not reached farmers though the state has been experiencing floods in the last three years.

There has been record rainfall in the month of October and the current month and the standing crops have perished in rain water. Maize, paddy, millets, fruits, vegetables and coffee grown on lakhs of hectares were ready for harvesting but are rotting now due to excess rain. The relief announced during the kharif season of the current year has not reached farmers so far.

Shivakumar said the Crop Insurance scheme implemented by the Union government to enable farmers get relief for crop damage during natural calamities, was a bane for them rather than a boon.

Though the government has set a deadline for crop insurance registration, no time limit has been set for the payment of compensation to the ryots.

Despite payment of premium, farmers are not getting relief.

As per the rules, the compensation must reach farmers within 45 days but it is being delayed citing technical reasons. Why blame the farmers when crops whihc were ready for harvesting have perished in the rains leaving the farmers devastated, he wondered.

Shivakumar said that 25 BJP MPs from the state have their ‘mouths sealed’ and are not ready to take up the injustice being meted out to Karnataka in the payment of relief under the natural calamity fund with the PM. Previously, the state had suffered a loss of Rs 60,000 crore but the Congress said the damage was over Rs one lakh crore. What the state got finally got as relief sufficed only for a few crops. Karnataka has been meted out injustice by both the state and Union governments that are ruled by the same party, the BJP, he remarked.