Farmers at Belgaum in north Karnataka have “auctioned” footwear representing politicians, including the Prime Minister and the chief minister, to protest delay in the distribution of flood relief.

The farmers affiliated to the powerful Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (Karnataka State Farmers’ Union) and Hasiru Sene (Green Army) raised Rs 61 — each pair of footwear was “auctioned” for Re 1 — during a 48-hour hunger strike that ended on Tuesday to highlight their anger and disappointment at the perceived apathy of the Centre and the state government.

“We will send the Rs 61 raised in the auction to the state government as it is begging for money from the Centre to compensate our losses even though 45 days have passed since the floods,” KRRS leader Chunnappa Pujar, who organised the protest, told The Telegraph on Wednesday.

He said each pair of footwear represented a leader — from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to chief minister and BJP veteran B.S. Yediyurappa to deputy chief ministers Laxman Savadi and Govind Karjol, among others.

“Thousands of farmers like me have each lost lakhs of rupees as the floods ravaged our farmland and destroyed our homes. But the saddest part is the total apathy of the governments in the state and at the Centre,” Pujar said.

He said nationalised and cooperative banks from where they had taken crop loans were now after the farmers, who had no means left of repaying the money. “We want the government to waive our loans since the flood is not our fault,” Pujar said.

The overflowing Malaprabha, Gataprabha and Krishna rivers caused devastation in Belgaum and Bagalkot districts in August. A total of 22 districts were affected. More than 80 lives were lost in the flood that displaced about seven lakh people as 2.3 lakh houses were either damaged or collapsed.

“More than 3.5 lakh hectares of farmland were inundated for several days, killing our crops,” Pujar said.

“In spite of our repeated pleas, none of the senior leaders visited us. At least Savadi and Karjol, who are from north Karnataka, should have visited us to understand our plight,” Pujar added.

He also accused Opposition leaders from the Congress and the Janata Dal Secular of ignoring the farmers’ problems. “They are all the same. They just come to us for votes,” he said.

The KRRS was floated by M.D. Nanjundaswamy, who led the organisation for several years until his death in 2004.

He had shot to fame by opposing the entry of multinational seed companies such as Monsanto and led the ransacking of the first KFC outlet in Bangalore in 1996.

But after Nanjundaswamy’s death, K.S. Puttaniah and Kodihalli Chandrashekar emerged from his shadows and formed their own splinter groups — both powerful entities. The group that held the footwear auction in Belgaum owes allegiance to Nanjundaswamy.

The Congress Legislature Party met on Wednesday to take stock of the flood and draught in the state and then held a sit-in at the foot of the Mahatma Gandhi statue on the campus of the Vidhana Soudha that houses the state legislature.

“In all, 22 districts witnessed unprecedented floods about one-and-a-half months ago. Eight other districts have been facing severe draught. Yet this government has done nothing to help them,” Congress senior Siddaramaiah told reporters.

“We decided to hold a one-day sit-in at Belgaum on September 24 which all our MLAs, MPs and other leaders will attend. We demand the state government to waive all crop loans as farmers have lost their crops in the flood and draught,” the former chief minister added.

“The Centre has not released even one rupee after this humongous disaster in Karnataka, and the state government has done nothing to put pressure on their Prime Minister to release funds,” Siddaramaiah said.

“In spite of the Prime Minister visiting Bangalore on September 7 (for the Chandrayaan-2 landing), he did not utter a word on the flood-and-draught situation here.”

Revenue minister R. Ashoka defended the BJP government and said all district authorities had been instructed to distribute relief funds.

“We have sanctioned Rs 5 lakh to rebuild each collapsed house, Rs 1 lakh to repair any damage and Rs 10,000 as immediate relief. We have asked district officials to distribute the money in a few days,” he said.

But Ashoka did not explain the reason for the delay in distributing the compensation.