Ramanagara: Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said he has written seeking a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and will raise farmers’ issues with him when the Prime Minister visits Bengaluru on November 13.
Speaking to reporters near the Bengaluru South Collectorate in Ramanagara on Thursday, November 5, he said: “I will definitely meet him. I have already written a letter. The Prime Minister is coming to Bengaluru on November 13. I will speak to him that day; otherwise, I will ask for another time.”
Shivakumar called the BJP an anti-farmer party and asked why its leaders did not protest when petrol and diesel prices went up, saying the Centre should cut fuel prices first. He said the Hasiru Sene had given him a letter of appreciation for raising milk prices, and that if the Centre reduces fuel prices, the state will reduce KSRTC bus fares.
On sugarcane, he said discussions were held with factories and farmers, and the factories were told to fix prices so that farmers get justice. He said farmers in Haveri district have approached the court seeking police protection for harvesting and transporting sugarcane, and that he has told officials to provide protection since the cane is drying up.
On the Gruha Lakshmi scheme, he said Rs 7,400 crore was released on Wednesday to help women during the Deepavali festival, and that some women were coming to meet him the next day.
He said he had not come to Ramanagara on a tour, calling it his hometown, and that he is reviewing development works in each constituency of the district by calling MLAs and ministers individually. He said irrigation works worth more than Rs 1,000 crore have already been carried out, with hospital works under way in Kanakapura and Ramanagara and several projects in Magadi.
Asked about medical colleges, he said that after the government came to power it approved Chamundeshwari Medical College, that Dayananda Sagar Institution had been given permission earlier in Channapatna where work is continuing, and that construction is under way in the Ramanagara and Kanakapura constituencies, with work going on at four places. He said they will be inaugurated soon and steps will be taken to appoint a university Vice-Chancellor separately and have the office relocated there.
On pensions, he said payment of scheme funds is sometimes delayed by a month or two and that he has told the cabinet a system is needed to pay old-age and other pensions on a fixed date, as salaries are paid to government employees.
Asked about senior leaders in the district meeting him for corporation board positions, he said there was nothing wrong with it. On JD(S) allegations that schemes are being used for election purposes, he said: “We are not here to play politics. We are here to help the poor and serve them.”
Asked whether the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls (SIR) was discussed in the cabinet, he said there had been several objections to the voters’ list in the past and that “we have our own objections regarding the SIR issue too. Action will be taken on this matter.”
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