TIRUVARUR, January 22, 2014 Grievances meet for farmers The monthly farmers grievances day meeting will be held at the collectorate hall here at 10.30 a.m. on January 30. The District Collector S. Natarajan will preside over the meeting. An official press release urged the farmers to take part in the meeting and get their grievances solved. PERAMBALUR, January 22, 2014 Farmers’ grievances day meeting The monthly farmers grievances day meeting will be held at the collectorate hall here at 10 a.m. on January 23. Darez Ahamed, Collector, will preside over the meeting. An official press release issued here on Tuesday urged the farmers to take part in the meeting and get their grievances solved. BIDAR, January 22, 2014 Farmers urged to focus on food processing Better markets for farm produce will solve half the problems farmers face today, the former vice-chancellor of University of Agriculture Sciences, Dharwad, S.A. Patil said at Basava Kalyan on Tuesday. He was speaking at a session organised at the Basava Utsav. Mr. Patil said middlemen were depriving farmers of a better price for their farm produce. “Middlemen control the lives of farmers as they double up as moneylenders and input suppliers. To escape from their clutches, farmers should focus on food processing and finding better markets for their produce,” he said. He cited examples of farmers who turned to be frugal innovators. They used available resources to find solutions to their problems. In this sense, farmers have proven to be better farm scientists than many of resource persons in research institutions, he said. Example Recalling his visit to Israel, Dr. Patil said community farming there had many lessons to offer to India. “If they can grow bumper crops with 200mm to 400 mm of rain, why can’t we?” he questioned. He urged professors and researchers to focus on dryland farming and on ways to attain remunerative prices for farm produce. Labour leader G.N. Nagaraj said the socio-economic conditions in Basava Kalyan led to the cultural revolution in the 12th century. Influence The unpublished works of Sharanas like Vokkaliga Muddanna were brought out as books. Writers like Jedara Dasimayya were influenced by the agricultural practices of that period, he said. P.V. Sateesh, sustainable farming promoter, urged farmers to grow millets to tackle malnutrition. He also urged farmers to reduce the cost of cultivation by adopting natural methods of farming. ‘Middlemen are depriving farmers of a fair price for their produce’ PATNA, January 22, 2014 Nitish makes paddy MSP highest in the country The Bihar Government on Tuesday announced an increase of Rs.250 per quintal bonus on procurement of paddy pushing the MSP to Rs.1,560 a quintal, highest in the country. The decision to increase bonus on paddy for farmers was taken at a meeting of the State Cabinet presided over by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. The price for purchase of paddy this year was initially fixed at Rs.1,310 per quintal. Chief Secretary Ashok Kumar Sinha told reporters the hike was aimed at encouraging farmers who cultivated paddy in the State despite an adverse weather. He said farmers who sold their paddy produce prior to this hike, would also be benefited as additional sums would be paid to them. Asked about the paddy production volume in the State this year, he said a final figure was not yet arrived at, but it might fall short of last year’s production figures. In another significant decision, the Cabinet approved a proposal to recruit the father of a girl, who was gang-raped twice and later allegedly burnt alive in West Bengal, as a driver in the police force after conducting a driving test. Mr. Kumar had last week offered the job to the victim’s father, who hails from Samastipur, when he had come here to meet him with his wife. Meanwhile the BJP on Tuesday slammed the State government for delay in procurement of paddy which would have negative impact on the implementation of food security law in the State scheduled from February one as it has to pay an additional Rs.200-Rs.300 per quintal of rice to the Food Corporation of India. “Shortage will force the Bihar Government to purchase rice from the FCI for which it will have to pay an additional Rs.200-Rs.300 per quintal,” former Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi told reporters. Delaying announcement of increase in bonus for farmers by two-and-a-half months instead of benefitting farmers would only benefit middlemen and traders as majority of farmers have already sold their produce in distress, he said. – PTI RANCHI, January 22, 2014 Jharkhand farmers protest ‘double displacement’ ‘HEC has resold land to govt. and builders for fat sum’ More than a hundred farmers staged a protest as Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren laid the foundation for a new Assembly building on the outskirts of Ranchi on Tuesday as part of the government’s “Core Capital” plan. Displaced villagers stage a protest on the outskirts of Ranchi on Tuesday seeking fair compensation.— Photo: Manob Chowdhury The farmers had sold their land to the public sector Heavy Engineering Corporation during 1955-60, but hold de facto possession of portions of more than 360 acres that HEC had bought but never built structures on it. For several years, farmers of 19 villages demanded that HEC return them the surplus land. A few now ask that the government compensate them as per the Right to Fair Compensation, and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, as they will be displaced for a second time. “HEC bought the land from us at Rs.3, 200 an acre and did not use it for 50 years. Since 2007, it has sold the land to government bodies and even builders at Rs. 55 lakhs an acre. There is a new law now, and we demand fair compensation,” said Aijaz Ahmed, who worked as an automobile engineer and is jobless now.“My mother and aunts work on the land. Paddy from our land lasts six months. We will not give up our land,” said Poonam Oraon, a B.A. III-year student of Ranchi University. The families, including women and children, started protesting on the site a week before the ceremony. On Monday, a government team invited them for talks, offering Rs.9,000 in annuity for five years per acre, and new houses in compensation. Even as the farmers, busy with harvest, asked for three weeks’ time to respond, leaders of the BJP, Babulal Marandi’s Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) and the Sudesh Mahto-led All Jharkhand Students’ Union (AJSU) joined the protesters at the site. On Tuesday, as the Chief Minister, Ministers and senior officials went past the protesters in their cavalcades to the foundation site a few metres away, the Congress MP from Ranchi and former Union Minister, Subodh Kant Sahay, joined the farmers. He was joined by the local MLA, Naveen Jaiswal of the AJSU. “The Core Capital must be moved to another site. Farmers shall not be displaced twice,” said the MP even as Congress Ministers in the coalition government attended the function. State BJP vice-president Deepak Prakash, who reached the site on Monday, played down the Arjun Munda-led BJP government’s role in pursuing fresh construction on the same land two years ago as part of its Greater Ranchi Development Plan. “HEC is acting like a land-broker,” he alleged. “Our government has begun offering a new package to those affected. What Mr. Sahay does is his choice,” said Speaker S.S. Bhokta of the Jharkhand Mukthi Morcha. TIRUCHI, January 22, 2014 Water level at Mettur The water level in Mettur dam stood at 52.24 feet on Tuesday against its full level of 120 feet. The inflow was 317 cusecs and the discharge 2,024 cusecs. Weather INSAT PICTURE AT 11-30 hrs. Observations recorded at 8-30 a.m. on January 21. ANDHRA PRADESH Anantapur 31 17 0 0 Arogyavaram 29 16 0 0 Bapatla 30 19 0 0 Calingapatnam 28 21 0 0 Gannavaram 30 20 0 0 Hanamkonda 31 19 0 0 Hyderabad AP 28 19 0 0 Kakinada 30 21 0 1 Khammam 32 20 0 0 Kavali 30 19 0 4 Kurnool 32 19 0 0 Mahabubnagar 30 17 0 0 Machilipatnam 29 21 0 0 Nandyal 31 19 0 0 Narasapur 32 21 0 0 Nellore 31 22 0 1 Nizamabad 33 19 0 0 Ongole 30 20 0 2 Ramagundam 31 16 0 0 Tirupathi AP 31 19 0 1 Tuni 31 20 0 0 Vizag AP 30 21 0 3 Vizag 29 22 0 19 KARNATAKA Agumbe 30 13 0 0 Bangalore AP 27 14 0 0 Bangalore 27 15 tr 0 Bagalkote 33 14 0 0 Belgaum AP 30 17 0 0 Bellary 32 16 0 0 Bijapur 31 17 0 0 Chitradurga 30 17 0 0 Chickmagalur 29 15 0 0 Chintamani 28 12 0 0 Gadag 30 16 0 0 Gulbarga 32 17 0 0 Hassan 28 11 0 0 Honavar 34 22 0 0 Karwar 36 21 0 0 Madikeri 25 14 0 5 Mangalore AP 34 22 0 0 Mysore 28 19 0 0 Mandya 28 16 0 0 Panambur 36 23 0 0 Raichur 31 17 0 0 Shirali 33 22 0 0 KERALA Alappuzha 35 23 0 1 Kannur 33 23 0 1 Kochi AP 33 21 0 0 Kottayam 36 22 0 0 Kozhikode 34 25 tr tr Punalur 35 19 0 1 Thiruvanantha -puram AP 32 23 0 129 Thiruvanantha -puram City 34 23 0 24 Vellanikkara 33 24 0 0 TAMIL NADU Adiramapattinam 31 19 0 12 Chennai 30 24 0 tr Chennai AP 30 21 tr 1 Coimbatore AP 30 19 0 0 Coonoor 16 10 0 12 Cuddalore 31 20 0 tr Dharmapuri 29 18 0 0 Kanyakumari 31 23 0 85 Karaikal 29 23 0 7 Kodaikanal 16 8 0 17 Madurai AP 33 19 0 10 Nagapattinam 29 24 0 7 Palayamkottai 32 21 0 31 Pamban 30 25 0 59 Parangipettai 31 22 6 6 Puducherry 31 20 0 1 Salem 31 19 0 0 Thanjavur 30 22 0 1 Tiruchi AP 31 21 0 tr Tirupattur 31 18 0 0 Tiruttani 31 19 0 2 Tondi 29 20 0 43 Tuticorin 31 21 0 21 Ooty 19 5 0 0 Valparai 29 9 0 12 Vellore 31 19 0 1 LAKSHADWEEP Amini Divi 32 24 41 63 Minicoy 31 24 0 2 Kavarathi — — — — OTHER STATIONS Kolkata (Alipore) 24 13 0 0 Mumbai 27 23 tr 0 New Delhi 22 11 0 4 The columns show maximum and minimum temperature in Celsius, rainfall during last 24 hours (trace) and total rainfall in mm since January 01, 2014.