Federation president K Shantha Kumar said the Congress, before the elections in May this year, had promised to provide 10 hours of quality power supply to farmers.
Published Date – 07:54 PM, Sat – 21 October 23
Federation president K Shantha Kumar said the Congress, before the elections in May this year, had promised to provide 10 hours of quality power supply to farmers.
Hyderabad: A trailer of what is in store when the Congress is in power is running in the neighbouring Karnataka, with farmers and their families being forced to come out on the streets on the day of the Dasara festival, protesting against the government’s betrayal.
The protest, which is against the Congress government going back on its pre-poll promise of 10 hours of power supply to the farming community, with the farmers now struggling to make do with barely two hours of power supply, will be spearheaded by the Karnataka Farmers Associations Federation, which has called for a Sadak Bandh protest across the State on October 24.
Federation president K Shantha Kumar said the Congress, before the elections in May this year, had promised to provide 10 hours of quality power supply to farmers. Now, hardly two hours of power was being supplied to farmers, leading to unrest and protests across the State.
“All we want is the Congress government to fulfill the promises made to farmers in their manifesto, which is just 10 hours of quality power supply,” Shantha Kumar said.
Ever since the Congress made ‘five guarantees’ during the elections, it has been struggling to implement the same in Karnataka. All the funds, including those for schemes for SC, ST and other sections were being diverted for implementing the five guarantees, he said.
Farmers in Karnataka are now drawing comparisons with the situation in Telangana, where farmers are being provided quality power round the clock for free.
“I have personally visited different areas in Telangana three times. Farmers informed us that sufficient power was being supplied even during summer,” Shantha Kumar said.
Since the last few days, farmers across Karnataka, including in Chikballapur, Raichur, Gulbarga and Yadgir have hit the roads, raising slogans and staging protests in front of the offices of power distribution companies, the agriculture department and other places, demanding sufficient power supply to the agriculture sector.
What was more appalling is that 24 hours of power was being supplied to corporates and IT companies, but farmers were being neglected. At many places, standing crops like red gram, paddy and others were getting damaged due to insufficient power supply to the agriculture sector and farmers being unable to operate bore-wells, Karnataka Rythu Rajya Sangha member Sukki Nanjundaswamy said.
Right from Bidar to Chamarajanagar, farmers across the State were facing lot of difficulties in cultivating their crops. The Karnataka government could have planned power supply to different sectors in a better way. But it has failed to fulfill its promises, she said.
“It is not just about farmers but is also about food security. The Karnataka government is finding it difficult to implement the Annabhagya scheme and even had approached other States for purchasing rice. Things can turn even worse if the power crisis continues in Karnataka,” she added.
