It was one of those rare, but much necessary occasions.
The who-is-who of Karnataka political spectrum were part of the delegation to
Delhi today. CM, ten of his cabinet colleagues, Union Ministers (Sri SM
Krishna, Veerappa Moily, Mallikarjun Kharge, KH Muniappa), leaders of the both
the houses of legislature (Sri Siddaramaiah, Smt Motamma), JDS(s) leaders
(HD Kumaraswamy, HD Revanna, Basavaraja Horatti) and almost all the members of
Parliament from the State (including the Rajya Sabha members) were there.
We went with a common objective to secure Central
Assistance in a horde of issues;
a) 24 of the 30 districts (123 out of 176 Taluks) have
been reeling under severe drought conditions. In many villages, drinking water has
to be supplied through tankers. There has been severe shortage of fodder for
millions of cattle and the same is being procured from long distances. Farmers
have faced huge crop losses.
b) Further to the
memorandum submitted to the Central Govt last December, the State today submitted
an updated request for Rs 5800 crore assistance.
c) Prices of very
many crops like Tur Dal, Ginger, Onions, etc., have collapsed due to market
fluctuation and the farmer needs market support.
d) Thanks to the severe reduction in the import duty on
Silk, from 30% to 5% by the Central Govt, silk is generously imported from
China causing inexplicable damage to the state's farmers who contribute about
50% of the national produce.
Apart from these issues we reiterated the long standing
demand for amendment of the Constitution (Article 371-d) to grant
special status to Hyderabad Karnataka region comprising Bidar, Gulbarga,
Yadgir, Raichur, Koppal and Bellary districts, to give more thrust to
Education, Employment and Development in this historically most backward area.
Then we also sought Central Govt's nod for NAMMA Metro's
Second Phase which may cost Rs 26,000 Crores.
WE met Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Finance Minister
Pranab Mukherjea and Hon'ble PM Dr Manmohan Singh.
It was heartening to see all these leaders speaking in one
voice, forgetting all political differences for a day, with just the interest
of the State as paramount.
This is one experience, I will cherish for long.
S Suresh kumar
3 comments:
Good that finally our politicians raised for common and "the need of the hour cause". I am very happy about it.Thank you all. Drought situations have been happening Sir, but our governments are not thinking about any long term initiatives. Making our farmers sustainable is more important, I feel feeding during drought situation is not a solution.Thank you for your post. It is very informative.
As you know nothing will come out of the talks unless it is pursued more forcefully.
Just to sooth China importing goods against the interest of local producers and putting them into loss makes me to feel very very sorry for the people of India.
God save India.
Amazing and interesting, of course!
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