HUBBALLI: Distressed farmers of north Karnataka are pinning their hopes on big announcements, including waiver of farm loans and interest, by Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah at a rally scheduled to be held at Gudagur village of Ranibennur taluk at the end of their 6.5 km padayatra on Saturday.
The padayatra, intended as a demonstration of support for farmers who are distraught and in debt, has sparked hopes of a solution for growers of the parched region which has witnessed a spate of suicides in recent months. Though more than 46 farmers committed suicide in Haveri district alone during the last three months, the kin of only a dozen of them have received ex-gratia amount. The authorities concerned have left several families in the lurch by rejecting the death of the head of the family as a case of suicide, and therefore, ineligible for ex-gratia.
The district-level committees have sanctioned ex-gratia only to such families which had the title-deed of agricultural land. Such action has upset the farming community and therefore any announcement on modification of rules would be welcomed by growers.
“It is unjustifiable to drop more than half the number of farmer suicide cases as ineligible for ex-gratia. We are hoping that Congress leaders will announce ex-gratia to families of all those who committed suicide during the convention in Gudagur. We are also optimistic that the state government will declare waiver of loan and interest apart from increase in ex-gratia to these families from Rs 2 lakhs to Rs 5 lakhs. The move will serve as a morale booster to farmers who are suffering from drought", says farmers’ leader Ramanna Kenchalli.
Meanwhile, security has been beefed up in Maidur and Gudugur villages ahead of Mr Rahul Gandhi’s visit.
Hundreds of CCTV cameras have been installed at various locations along the padayatra route, and venue of the public rally. The duration of an interactive session with farmers has been restricted to a mere ten minutes. Students of government primary school in Maidur village have been allotted just 5-10 minutes to get answers to their queries from Mr Gandhi before the leader commences his march.
“Around 4-5 students will be allowed to pose questions to Mr Rahul Gandhi in Kannada, and they will be translated into English for the leader. Ten minutes time allotted to us for interactive session is very less as more than 50 students will take part in it. We have also given proper training to our students to ask questions in English as all of them are children of poor farmers and have little knowledge about other languages except Kannada,” says school teacher V R Vaderahalli.
For lunch, Mr Gandhi would savor delicacies of north Karnataka at the residence of local legislator K B Koliwad.
