Farmers demand comprehensive power policy

bellary: members of the district bharatiya kisan sangha and taluku neeravari pumpset vidyuth balikedaarara horata samithi held a protest rally on monday demanding immediate formulation of comprehensive power policy for farmers' pumpsets. in a rally headed by p.m. harischandra reddy, president, uttara karnataka bharatiya kisan sangha and r. madhava reddy, district unit president, the farmers demanded continuous power supply for their pumpsets and said the government must stop the direction given to the power officers to fix metres for the irrigation pumpsets, also the department must address the problems of energy faced by the farmers in the region.they also demanded that as there was a pertinent price fixed by the world trade organisation (wto) which pushed the farmers to distress situation, the government must purchase the agriculture produce from the farmers by fixing appropriate support price. they said the government must streamline the connecting roads in the rural region and establish good roads where they are damaged due to recent heavy rain. the other demands included - a minimum of rs 1 lakh be paid as compensation to suicide farmers, to extended time for recovery of crop loans provided to farmers and recurring interest on loans be waived off, banks and other institutions should give new loans to farmers for rabi cultivation, as the rain was active in several districts. leaders harischandra reddy and madhava reddy placed some demands pertaining to power sector and demanded immediate action. some of them are: the government must drop the idea of privatisation of power sector, instead it should strengthen the sector by investing more money in the state power sector. irrigation pumpsets must not be fixed with metres of higher metre rate. the tariff for irrigated pumpsets should be declared based on the horsepower of motor in use. all preventive steps must be taken to check the transmission loss and pilfiration in the system. the government must hammer out pilfiration by industrialists. the government must take up training camp for farmers. later, the activists submitted a memorandum to deputy commissioner jawaid akhtar addressed to chief minister s.m. krishna. the activists also held a protest rally in front of the rural divisional kptc office. new office bearers: the members of the district unit of karnataka state government vehicle drivers association elected the members for its executive body. arogyappa from health department presided over the function. the presidents of kudligi, siruguppa, h.b.halli and hadagali taluk units participated as observers. a.c. hoogar, driver, zilla panchayat engineering sub-divisional was elected president for the district government vehicle drivers association and j. murali, driver, commercial tax department was elected as vice-president. the other office-bearers are rahmathullah, health department (secretary) and s. narayana, revenue department (joint secretary) and sivappa of pwd department (treasurer). mareppa of animal husbandry department will be the district convenor of the association.