Special session mulls crisis in agriculture

A special legislature session began here to discuss issues on agriculture and rural development, with Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa appealing to members to come out with meaningful solutions to ameliorate the farmers’ condition and improve lot of villagers.

“Convening a session to discuss our society’s and state’s most important issues of agriculture and rural dev-elopment is probably a first in the country’s legislature history,” Yeddyurappa said in the assembly today. The House was to meet for three days from today.

Speaker Jagadish Shettar said it was decided at the business advisory committee to extend the session by another three days. Highlighting the plight of farmers, Yeddyurappa lamented that despite many programmes for their benefit, nothing has been done to improve their lot. Villages have remained as they were for decades.

Villages have become old-age homes, he said, adding, there is a dire need to stop people from migrating to urban areas by creating infrastructure like schools, hospitals and industries in rural areas to arrest the trend. “Despite many projects in force and lakhs of crores of rupees having been spent, our villages have not developed as per expectations,” the chief minister said.