Hubballi: Industries minister R.V. Deshpande lost his temper when drought-hit farmers sought compensation for loss of crop in Shyagoti village of Gadag district on Thursday.
There was a verbal dual between him and BJP MLC S.V. Sankanur when the minister passed the blame onto the Central government for not releasing funds to take up drought relief measures. The distressed farmers were taken aback by his argument with the BJP leader.
This happened during the tour of drought-hit Gadag district by a Cabinet sub-committee headed by the minister, who was accompanied by Agriculture minister Krishna Bhiregouda and minister for information technology S.R. Patil.
Mr Deshpande inspected lake development under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in Shyagoti when he received a series of complaints over crop loss. He lost his cool and claimed that the Centre was politicizing the drought by not releasing funds.
He directed the officials to maintain proper files to record the complaints of drought-hit farmers in respective Gram Panchayats. Villagers complained that officials had failed to disburse funds under MGNREGS in the past few months, forcing them to desert villages in search of jobs in cities.
The ministers directed officials to pay wages under the scheme once a week and warned the ZP chief executive officer of punitive action in case of dereliction of duty.
