‘State govt. will take steps to provide solutions to farmers’ problems’

The State government will take steps to provide solutions to long pending problems of farmers, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai assured in Belagavi on Saturday. He told farmers’ leaders who met him in the Suvarna Soudha that he would try his best to help find solutions to their problems.

The CM assured them that the government would ensure that all sugar factories paid arrears of sugarcane dues of all farmers. He also said he would ensure that officers completed the flood loss survey in a short time and released all compensation due to the farmers.

A memorandum submitted by farmers to the CM included other demands like a complete farm loan waiver, shifting of the Sugar Commissioner’s office to Belagavi, shifting of important offices to Suvarna Soudha and completing all irrigation projects in North Karnataka on time.

The CM tried to stop Prakash Nayak, a farmer’s leader, who fell at his feet. “You should not do that,” he told him.

Earlier at Almatti, farmers’ leaders had a heated argument with the police who allegedly stopped them from meeting the CM. Basavaraj Patil Sonnal, a farmer, told journalists that the police did not allow them to meet the CM in the KBJNL office in Alamatti. “We wanted to submit a memorandum to the CM complaining against delay in payment of sugar cane arrears by sugar factories and delay in release of compensation to farmers who lost houses and crops in the floods. But we were stopped,” he said.

The CM spent a few minutes with farmers before he left Almatti and received a memorandum.