The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday promised to waive crop loans up to Rs 1 lakh if voted to power in the Assembly elections in Karnataka. The party also announced free accidental insurance cover of up to Rs 2 lakh for landless agricultural labourers, and a Rs 5,000-crore “market intervention fund” to help farmers deal with changes in crop prices.
Chief ministerial candidate BS Yeddyurappa announced the party’s manifesto in Bengaluru on Friday. He said if voted to power, his party would allocate Rs 1.5 lakh crore to irrigation projects to ensure “water reaches every field in the state”, ANI reported. The party would also introduce a separate agriculture budget, he said.
To push for the move to double farmers’ income by 2022, the party promised to ensure that farmers receive 1.5 times the cost of production as minimum support price.
The BJP said that to allow start-ups to flourish, its government would develop six “K-Hubs” to incubate and build co-working spaces at Hubballi, Bengaluru, Raichur, Mysuru, Mangaluru and Kalaburgi.
Other promises made by the party include free sanitary napkins for women living below the poverty line, free laptops for college students and direct income support for small farmers.
Elections to the 224-member Karnataka Assembly will take place on May 12, and the results will be announced on May 15. The Assembly elections are crucial as the results are expected to set the tone for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
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