Farmer gets Rs 2000 notes sans Mahatma Gandhi image from bank

Bengaluru, May 8: Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa said his government is clear in its stand on extending every possible help to the farmers. The Chief Minister spoke to the farmer-leaders of the state, who wanted their concerns to be heard and addressed, with regard to the problems the agrarian community has been facing in the wake of the COVID-19 lockdown.

"We will soon make our position clear on supporting the farmers. We will not allow any hindrance to come in the way of agriculture activities," Yediyurappa told the farmer- leaders.

The Chief Minister told the delegation that the pre-monsoon activities are in full swing in the state.

The government has also set up help centres and been providing agriculture equipment on rent, the Chief Minister said. In most of the places, at least 80 per cent of the standing crops have been harvested.

Arrangements have been made to bring equipment from neighbouring states to harvest the standing crop, he said.

Yediyurappa said fertilisers and seeds are available in abundance in the state.

He informed the farmer-leaders about the arrangements made to transport flowers, vegetables and fruits to other states.

Similarly, the market has been developed for the farmers to sell their products, said the Chief Minister.

He said the government is working out a compensation for farmers who lost their crops due to hailstorm in Raichur, Koppal and Ballari. Agriculture Minister B C Patil, Horticulture Minister Narayana Gowda, Revenue Minister R Ashoka, Chief Secretary T M Vijay Bhaskar and Development Commissioner Vandita Sharma were also present in the meeting.

Mangaluru/Udupi, Jun 7: Coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi have recorded 17 and 13 new coronavirus positive cases between 5 p.m. on June 6 and 5 p.m. on June 7. 

16 among 17 new covid patients in Dakshina Kannada are returnees from Maharashtra, while one returned from Goa recently.

Maharashtra returnees comprise 14 males, including three teenagers t, and two females aged 32 and 41. The Goa returnee is a 32-year-old male.

All of them have all been admitted to the designated COVID hospital in the district.

With this, the total tally of coronavirus cases in Dakshina Kannada has risen to 203, out of which 47 are currently active. As many as 150 patients have recovered and been discharged, and seven have died.

Among the 13 in Udupi, 12 are Maharashtra returnees, while process of contact tracing of one patient, a 30-year-old woman, is going on.

The patients comprise eight males, including a 7-year-old boy, and five females. They have all been admitted to the designated hospital.

This takes the total number of coronavirus cases in Udupi district to 902, out of which 798 are currently active, 103 discharged, and one patient has died.

We came on foot, we came on boats, shouting slogans of Azadi.

We stood on roof tops and sat on walls under the burning midday sun,

Listening to the words that we had longed to hear for so long.

Words that had been scripted through the lonely fears of our hearts.

Words that were spoken now with the clarity of courage.

Words that were spoken now with the suppressed strength of pent up anger.

Words that were spoken now with the certainty of belonging to the soil 

Which had become one with the dust of our ancestors.

We stood there in the waves of heat

Feeling the surge and press  of countless bodies around us.

Bodies meshed through the odour of sweat 

And the shared fear of a common persecution.

And hanging from the roof tops,

And tied to the poles,

And clutched in hands slippery with sweat,

And wrapped round the pillars,

And spreading into our blood,

Were three strips of colour with a wheel of spokes,

Sewn together into the shape of our being.

Woven into the folds of our future and the creases of our past. 

Stitched to the seams of the earth, the water, the air and the sky 

That belonged to us and to which we belonged. 

And we stood there from noon to evening,

We the people of India.

Raising our clenched fists like signposts to the future.

Chanting slogans like a new anthem.

Kin to each other through the ties of community.

Born to live and die 

In a nation that was ours to hold on to

And ours to belong to.

Dr Parinitha is a professor of English in Mangalore University. She penned the poem soon after participating in the historic protest against CAA, NPR and NRC at Shah Garden, Adyar, Mangaluru on 15th January, 2020.

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