Give 50 % funds to waive off farm loans, Kumaraswamy tells centre
Bengaluru, June 17: Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy appealed Prime Minister Narendra Modi to give 50 per cent funds to waive off the farm loans of more than 85 lakh farmers who are under distress.
Speaking at the fourth NITI Aayog meeting held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on Sunday, Kumaraswamy explained the problems being faced by the farmers in the meeting. Farmers were in trouble because of drought, crop loss and other issues. It was the duty of the government to come to their rescue in such a situation. So, the state government has planned to waive off the farm loans of farmers at once, he said.
The state government is committed to introduce innovative programmes for the benefit of the farmers. It has already introduced some programmes. Every year, the state experiences natural calamities like drought or floods and the government has been spending huge money to handle this situation. In the last five years, the State Calamity Relief Funds (SCRF) has increased six times and this has been causing a burden on the state Exchequer, he said.
Under the SCRF, the centre has released just Rs 1375 crore between 2015 and 2020. Compared to other states, the amount is too minimum. So, the centre should increase this amount to help the state, he appealed.
Both capital investment and skills development are inevitable to set up self employment. The state government has been taking various measures for skills development. But it should be doubled. In view of this, employment generation and skills development subjects should be included in the agenda of the NITI Aayog, he suggested.
Welcoming the Prime Minister’s Rashtriya Swasthya Suraksha Mission of the central government, he said that the Karnataka government has also introduced Yashaswini and other ambitious programmes. Total 145 lakh beneficiaries from 30 lakh families were getting the benefit of this scheme, he said.
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BJP writes to EC about 'non-deployment' of central forces to avert clash
Kolkata (PTI): The BJP on Sunday wrote to the Election Commission alleging that its workers were not given security and came under attack while travelling to attend Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally at Brigade Parade Ground on March 14 and sought action over the alleged non-deployment of central forces by police.
In a letter to the poll panel, BJP leader Shishir Bajoria claimed that buses carrying party workers to the rally were targeted with bricks in the Girish Park area of north Kolkata, leaving several activists injured, some of whom were hospitalised.
Trouble broke out in the area when BJP activists objected to the putting up of flexes which read 'Boycott BJP', before the house of state minister Shashi Panja and tore down the flexes. Heavy brick batting followed as both sides regrouped along Central Avenue, and the window panes on the ground-floor room of Panja's residence were damaged in stone pelting.
The minister claimed she and several of her party members were injured in the brickbatting by rally-bound BJP supporters.
In the letter, the BJP alleged that despite a substantial deployment of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) ahead of the elections, the forces were not present at the site of the disturbance to ensure the safety of its workers and leaders.
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Putting the onus on TMC for the violence, the letter said, "A large number of buses bringing BJP 'karyakartas' to attend the rally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Brigade Parade Ground were subjected to large-scale brick-batting and violence, resulting in several BJP leaders sustaining injuries, many of whom had to be hospitalised."
Attaching purported photos and videos of the clash to back up their claims of TMC instigation, the letter said: "What was particularly of grave concern was that despite a big deployment of CAPF well before the polls, their complete absence at the spot during the disturbance, or in any part of the city of Kolkata."
"We would like to put on record that the presence of Kolkata Police at the spot of disturbance establishes the fact that they had an advance intelligence report of possible violence and yet kept the CAPF out," the BJP leader said in the letter to the CEC Gyanesh Kumar, and Chief Electoral Officer, West Bengal, Manoj Kumar Agarwal.
"Given the seriousness of the incident and the injuries sustained by several of our karyakarta, it raises concerns among citizens regarding the effective deployment of CAPF for preventing violence, and ensuring a free and fair electoral environment," the letter said.
"We request your good office to kindly take the strongest possible action against those who were responsible for this non-deployment of CAPF, resulting in this incident and ensure that in future deployment is carried out in a manner that truly serves its intended purpose of area domination, confidence building, and timely intervention wherever law and order situations arises from now till the elections are over," the letter said.
The BJP also reminded the commission that a party delegation had earlier met the full bench of the poll body on March 9 and raised concerns that CAPF personnel were being deployed for route marches in peaceful areas and highways instead of in locations requiring voter confidence-building measures.
At least eight persons, including a police officer, were injured in brickbatting, which broke out half an hour before the arrival of the Prime Minister at the Brigade Rally. The clash continued for about an hour as both sides fought a pitched battle on the road and nearby by-lanes before reinforcements brought the situation under control.
