The former Deputy Chairman of the Legislative Council B.R. Patil has said that the government is turning its official programme at Malkhed in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off an event for distribution of land rights certificates to Lambani Tanda dwellers into a party programme to gain undue publicity ahead of the Assembly elections.
In a media note released here on Wednesday, Mr. Patil said that the previous Congress government, led by Siddaramaiah, had taken the initiative of upgrading all Lambani Tandas into revenue villages and completed the process involved in it.
“There is nothing new in the event. The Siddaramaiah government had completed the process of upgrading the Tandas into revenue villages. Now, the BJP government is simply distributing the land rights certificates. It has invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to flag off the event just to gain publicity for the party. It is a complete political drama. The programme which is being organised with government money is being misused for publicity for the ruling party and it is condemnable,” Mr. Patil said.
Mr. Patil also criticised the government for not taking any steps to compensate farmers whose red gram crop has been destroyed due to wilt disease.
“Red gram, a major commercial crop in Kalaburagi, has been destroyed due to wilt disease. Standing crop on 5.30 lakh hectares of the total cultivated area of 11 lakh hectares has been destroyed. Growers have been protesting across the district demanding compensation. The insurance company paid scanty amounts of ₹2,000, ₹3,000 or ₹4,000 an acre for crop loss. Instead of taking steps to help the crisis-ridden farmers, the government is unnecessarily spending crores of rupees on programmes like the one in Malkhed to gain publicity,” Mr. Patil said, demanding that the government pay a minimum ₹25,000 per acre of red gram that has been destroyed.
