Bengaluru: Leaders of BJP, the principal Opposition party in the state, appealed to experts sent by the Union government, to recommend a special drought-relief package for the state, as more than 2000 farmers in distress had committed suicide since 2013.
The delegation, headed by leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, Jagadish Shettar, met Union agriculture secretary, Neeraja Adidam, and other experts, and explained how farmers were in deep distress because of successive droughts.
Their memorandum spoke of how important crops, including millet, rice, groundnut, corn, soy, nut, banana, peanuts, onions, sugar cane, tobacco, oil seeds crops, had withered due to failure of the monsoon. “As on September 30, as against a total live storage of 825.35 TMC feet in reservoirs, only 494.14 TMC feet of water was available, which constitutes only 60 per cent of the total capacity of all the 13 major reservoirs. The water in these reservoirs is the major source for drinking, irrigation, and power generation in the state,” states the memorandum.
Mr Shettar later told the media: “If the Union government announces a special package, it will help farmers overcome the distress situation. Till then, the state government should tackle the drought. We request the state government to release funds for drought relief works.
