Congress MLA slams party, says Karnataka government did nothing for farmers

Belagavi (Karnataka): Ruling Congress MLA Bharamgouda Kage alias Raju Kage on Friday accused the state government of doing nothing for farmers and he has been highligting this for the last one year.

Alleging that no schemes were introduced in the state for the farmers to survive, he even threatened to end his life at Vidhana Soudha, the seat of state legislature and secretariat in Bengaluru, for the agrarian cause.

"No schemes for farmers are being introduced. You must understand this. Should I tell you lies and do drama? What will the country eat if the rice and other crops are not grown? Should we eat currency notes? First help farmers to survive," Kage said at an event in Tawashi village in his Kagawad constituency in Belagavi district on Thursday.

Stating that this country can progress only when farmers survive, the MLA said, this has been his only cry for the past one year.

"For this (farmers’) cause I had even said that I would die by suicide inside Vidhana Soudha. A minister told me why you want to commit suicide when we are ready to do your work," he told the gathering.

Kage said he is not sitting idle as he has been raising people’s issues at government level, but the administration is not responding. He appealed to the journalists present to highlight it.

He said, "Should I resign? Why is the government not able to do anything? Why should we be in power? Being the MLA of the ruling party, if I am expressing my inability, then you can guess how we are living in this system."

Kage said he was deeply hurt and did not wish to be MLA in the future, but he has a commitment to fulfill the promises he made to his electorate.