Belagavi: Letting the state government off the hook and putting the ball firmly in the Centre’s court, JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda argued on Monday that with elections to the state assembly looming, the Siddaramaiah government could not be expected to write off farmers’ loans and it was upto the Centre to come to their rescue.
Speaking to reporters at Sambra airport near Belagavi, he contended that although the farmers were in distress due to the drought and desperately needed their loans to be written off, the state could not do the waiving with the assembly polls round the corner. “Instead, the Centre should take note of the farmers’ suffering due to the drought and take measures to waive off their loans,” he said, almost following the same line of argument on waiver of loans as the Siddaramaiah government. He, however, noted that waiver of farm loans had to be on the agenda of the new government taking over in 2018
Mr Gowda claimed that several influential political leaders from other political parties in the state were keen to join the JDS. “You will know who they are when they join the party,” he added, refusing to name them.
