BENGALURU: Agriculture Minister N Cheluvarayaswamy on Tuesday lashed out at the central government for the ‘reduced’ fund allocation to the state and accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah of showing “step-motherly treatment” towards Congress-ruled Karnataka.
“Modi or Amit Shah should not show such step-motherly treatment and attack Karnataka”, said Cheluvarayaswamy, adding that representatives from Karnataka at the Centre, including Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy, never spoke a word for the betterment of farmers in the state.
“We have representatives from Karnataka at the Centre, including H D Kumaraswamy, who never speak a word for the betterment of the farmers in Karnataka. They cut down the allocations and funds which are supposed to be for the farmers. The central government is disastrous for the farmers. They are becoming friendly to the corporate sectors. Our MPs and Ministers including H D Kumarswamy must apologise to the state as we fought for the tax share and the Supreme Court slammed the central government”, Cheluvarayaswamy said.
“Farmers don’t belong to one caste of community, they must be considered and their issues have to be addressed”, he said, adding that if the central government continues to do so, they will have to take different approach to oppose this and fight against such step-motherly treatment or neglect.
“We pay GST, but we get very less. Karnataka is also in the Union of India and the central government must not forget that. Being at the centre, the government can’t show such step-motherly treatment, we don’t need to convince them, they have to look at all states in the same way”, Swamy said.
The minister further accused the Union government of curbing fund allocations for the pro-poor schemes including Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY).
“In all schemes sponsored by the centre, the funds allocation has been curbed without any hesitation. They are also cutting down the PMAY which is 28 pc. All pro-poor schemes are being curbed down by the central government. The union government says they are providing funds to states, but on the other hand, they are curbing allocations including NABARD (The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development) allocations”, Cheluvarayaswamy informed.
The Karnataka government has requested NABARD to sanction a seasonal agricultural operations (SAO) limit of Rs 9,162 crore for the year 2024-25 on behalf of a short-term cooperative credit structure. The SAO limit sanctioned this year is Rs 2,340 crore, which is 58 per cent less compared to last year. For the year 2023-24, the SAO limit was Rs 5,600 crore.
“When the state government asked NABARD, it informed the reason for the reduced limit this year was the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allocating under the general line of credit. This is now the Union government showing its attitude towards Karnataka”, said Cheluvarayaswamy. (ANI)