Karnataka farmers threaten NOTA pick
PROTEST Caught between the state’s tussle over sharing Mahadayi river water with Goa, voters are campaigning for option that rejects all
A group of people stand outside the modest house of SM Doddagoudar, a debt-ridden farmer who allegedly committed suicide a day earlier on Wednesday after failing to repay loans he had taken from private money-lenders.
People say it has become a common sight in Karnataka’s Gadag district, now the epicentre of a farm crisis and also a peasant uprising against Goa’s refusal to release additional water from the Mahadayi river, during the dry winter season.
Angry farmers of the region – that straddles at least six districts in north Karnataka – said theat they have decided to exercise NOTA – none of the above – option in the upcoming assembly polls, likely in May this year.
Doddagoudar, 60, became the 24th farmer in the district to take his life due to agriculture distress perpetuated by less than normal rainfall. The farmers’ demand for more water from Mahadayi has sparked a slugfest between the ruling Congress and BJP, both accusing each other of failing to settle water dispute with Goa.
However, for the farmers, successive governments led by both the Congress and BJP have failed to solve the water shortage in the region – which mainly grows cotton, lentils and groundnut – leading to crop failures and subsequent farmer suicides.
“For all three political parties (Congress, BJP and Janata DalSecular) the issue has become an avenue to divide voters and reap electoral benefits,” said Kumaragouda Hiregoudar, a 37-year-old farmer who cultivates groundnut on his 1.5-acre farm.
The region – known as Mumbai-Karnataka as it was once part of the Bombay Presidency – elects 50 legislators to the 224-member Karnataka assembly.
In the last elections in 2013, the Congress won 34 seats. In 2008, it
NARGUND (KARNATAKA):
was the BJP that won 36 seats.
The BJP says its government in Goa is ready to settle the issue provided chief minister Siddaramaiah is interested. The Congress says the claim is bogus as Goa has been opposing the crucial Kalasa-Banduri Canal project through which additional water from the Mahadayi river can be diverted to Karnataka.
The region’s main source of water, Malaprabha dam, has had deficit levels for years. According to Karnataka Disaster Management Authority, water in the dam’s reservoir is only 12% of its capacity and is being supplied to homes, which too isn’t adequate.
As the situation is unlikely to improve in the dam in near future, farmers have pinned their hopes on getting water from the Mahadayi river, a west flowing river, to the Malaprabha basin.
However, farmers in Siddapura and nearby Chikka Nargund say they are angry over the state government’s inability to press for the completion of the Kalasa-Banduri Canal project.
The project is the subject of an inter-state water-sharing dispute between Goa, Maharashtra and Karnataka. Goa, in particular, is arguing against the proposal.
Vijay Kulkarni, an activist associated with the farmers’ protest, said the state government has failed to provide an “alternative source of water” even after 70 years of Independence.
Kulkarni, who started the Kalasa-Banduri Horata Samiti (agitation committee) in 2002, says the recent politicking over the issue, after former chief minister and state BJP chief BS Yeddyurappa read out a letter from Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar at a rally in Hubballi, was the last straw for them to campaign for selecting NOTA in the forthcoming polls.
“We have decided to campaign for the NOTA option. We have had enough of this petty politics,” said Kalmesh Sular, a farmer.
Kulkarni said the people “have to embarrass” the parties so “that they take us seriously”.
While state Congress chief G Parameshwara said he will ask local leaders to try and convince the farmers against such a move, BJP spokesperson S Prakash said it was a democratic right of citizens to choose NOTA if they are not satisfied with the candidates.
Sular rues the parties’ “obsessing” with Cauvery river dispute. “When it comes to Cauvery, they can come together, but can’t to solve our problems, ” he alleged.