BJP demands package for distressed farmers

Bangalore, Jun 30: The Bharatiya Janata Party today demanded that the UPA Government at the Centre announce a comprehensive package for the distressed farmers across the country and not just a ''piecemeal'' package for the suicide-hit Vidharbha region of Maharashtra.

''We are not against the Centre announcing a package for the Vidarbha region. But what is urgently needed is a comprehensive package to farmers in the rain fed areas of the entire country, especially in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Punjab. Farmers are committing suicide even in the prosperous Punjab and the Centre has been sluggish in responding to the dire needs of poor farmers,'' party Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu told reporters here.

Accusing the UPA Government of having miserably failed to help the farmers who had been hit hard by lack of adequate support price for their produce, market facilities and timely credit from banks, he said the Government should have a long term perspective and draft an integrated plan to uplift the distressed farming community.

Horticulture, food processing and value addition to farm produce, poultry and animal husbandry should be included in the comprehensive package. The package should include waiver of interest, increased credit disbursal, rescheduling of existing loans, provision of a seed bank, additional funds for pending irrigation projects and implementation of comprehensive crop insurance schemes.

The BJP leader claimed that after the Congress-led UPA Government assumed power, 8,000 farmers had committed suicide in the country, including 3,500 in the Congress-ruled Andhra Pradesh. The Centre and State Governments in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra were casual in their response and acted most irresponsibly, he alleged.

UNI