The Karnataka government has said that it has put in place a contingency plan for implementation in the event of a poor rainfall this year.

 

The four-month-long monsoon season started on a weak note as the annual rains arrived over the southern coast about five days behind the average date of June 1.

 

Government will wait up to July to see whether the rains improve and if not, it would go ahead with implementation of contingency plan, Agriculture Minister Krishna Byre Gowda said while replying to discussion on agriculture in the Assembly.

 

In May, due to fairly good rains, sowing has been equally good but this month, it dwindled due to unsatisfactory rains, he said, adding, government will recommend farmers to go for medium and short-term crops instead of long-term.

 

Government would recommend this to the farmers after consulting agricultural scientists and experts, Gowda added. Talking about recalcitrant vice-chancellors of agricultural universities, he said strict action would be taken against them for not cooperating with the legislators and political leaders.

 

Raising the issue, BJP's Suresh Gowda said "the agri university vice chancellors are behaving like Governors considering themselves to be supreme authority".    The government also plans to set up a warehouse where one lakh metric tonnes of grains could be stored and it requires Rs 75 crore in this regard, the minister said.

 

Referring to agro-investors meet during BJP rule when as many as 69 proposals worth Rs 61,200 crores were signed, he said 21 proposals have been given the green signal.

 

Rapping the previous BJP government, Gowda said Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has made attempts to bring the administration back to normalcy by transferring 280 officials to agriculture department.

 

"Most of the officers did not prefer to render their services in agricultural department citing a reason that they would not get promotions. Most of them preferred to work in lucrative departments like beverage, revenue, excise among other departments," he said.

 

Countering, Opposition Leader Jagadish Shettar said the government instead of taking action against the officials was expressing helplessness. "I request the Chief Minister to take action," he said.