BJP fails to provide sufficient fertiliser to farmers: Gowda

Hubli, Jun 18 (UNI) JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda today alleged that the BJP Government in Karnataka has failed to provide adequate quantity of fertilisers to the farmers in the state.

Talking to mediapersons at the airport here, before boarding a flight to Bangalore, he said it is the Government's duty to coordinate and manage the shortage of fertilisers. ''You cannot expect the farmer to sleep on the road when there is good rain,'' he said.

Along with the Centre, the State Government should also purchase fertilisers from factories and press the Centre to import certain ingredients needed for production of chemical fertilisers, he suggested.

He said he had written about the problem to Union Fertiliser Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on June four itself. But after Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa gave a statement that there was sufficient stock of fertiliser, the matter was not pursued any further.

Mr Gowda said he felt sad over the plight of the farmer Puttappa, who was injured in police firing at Haveri and undergoing treatment at Sanjay Gandhi hospital at Bangalore.

He said the victim, along with his mother, wife and three children, was living in a thatched house, which was on the verge of collapsing, and owned only 20 guntas of land.

Though the doctors at the hospital were trying their best, the farmer was still battling for life. ''Puttappa pleaded before me that he wanted to see his wife and children and I have come here to meet his family members and arrange for their travel to Bangalore,'' he added.

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