Budget anti-farmer, regressive, says Cong, JDS in Karnataka

The Congress and the JD(S) in Karnataka on Saturday dubbed the union budget tabled by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman regressive and anti-farmer.

Reacting to the budget, former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah claimed the Centre wants to privatise and corporatise the agriculture sector.

"Of the 16 points on agriculture, nine are related to corporate farming. Their intention is the privatisation of the agriculture sector.

They are going to benefit corporates and not the farmers," Siddaramaiah said.

Speaking about the three central model laws on agriculture related to agricultural land leasing, marketing and contract farming, Siddaramaiah claimed such laws were not going to benefit the marginal farmers, who are in a majority with a land holding somewhere between one acre and five acres.

"If at all they want to benefit these small farmers then they should bring integrated farming but that is not visible in this budget," Siddaramaiah pointed out.

Former chief minister and JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy called it the "most disappointing budget."