Aland MLA and Deputy Chairman of Karnataka State Policy and Planning Commission (KSPPC) B.R. Patil has urged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to lead a campaign at the national level demanding legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price (MSP) for agricultural produce.
Addressing presspersons in Kalaburagi on Wednesday, Mr. Patil said that Mr. Siddaramaiah made his political debut through a farm movement and also comes from an agricultural background.
He should continue to be the voice of farmers and press the Union government to enact a law for guaranteed buying of their crops at MSP.
Welcoming Mr. Siddaramaiah’s decision to withdraw a move to acquire 1,777 acres of fertile agricultural land in 13 villages of Channarayapatna hobli of Devanahalli taluk in Bengaluru Rural district, Mr. Patil reiterated that the Congress is standing by farmers to protect their interest and it will continue to support them.
The BJP government during its tenure in 2010 acquired 1,500 acres of agricultural land in the villages of Honna Kiranagi, Nadi Sinnur and Firozabad in Kalaburagi district for establishing a thermal power plant. But it failed to bring any mega project or industry, he said.
Mr. Patil demanded that the government establish an agriculture university on the acquired land.