Members of the Karnataka State Farmers’ Association and the Green Army faction led by Kodihalli Chandrasekhar staged a protest at Swatantra Udyaan in Bengaluru, demanding the implementation of Minimum Support Price (MSP) as per the Swaminathan Committee report and the waiver of farmers’ loans. The demonstrators voiced their anger against the central and state governments by raising slogans.
The protesters highlighted the severe distress faced by farmers due to adverse weather conditions, continuous drought, a crash in crop prices, rising production costs, heavy debt burdens, water scarcity, and the encroachment of agricultural land. They argued that these issues cannot be resolved through temporary measures and urged the government to adopt comprehensive, long-term strategies to ensure income security, provide adequate water for agriculture, guarantee fair prices for crops, and relieve farmers from debt.
The protest was led by Kodihalli Chandrasekhar, the state president of the Karnataka State Farmers’ Association and the Green Army. The farmers presented a list of specific demands, including crop loss compensation for farmers in drought-affected districts, preventing the acquisition of fertile agricultural land, fixing a fair price for sugarcane, addressing the problems of poultry farmers, allocating special funds for irrigation projects, resolving inter-state water disputes, waiving unnecessary charges on agricultural loans, and regularizing the Bagarhukun cultivation land.
