Bengaluru: Under the leadership of state president Kurubooru Shankar Kumar, farmers held a protest in Bengaluru's Freedom Park, demanding loan waiver and other demands.

Minister Satish Jarkiholi, who arrived at the protest site, assured to convene a meeting of farmer leaders under the chief minister's chairmanship within a week.

Farmers demanded that all agricultural loans be waived, and that rural women farmers who have taken loans from private financiers on a weekly and monthly basis are facing difficulty in repayment, and therefore, strict legal measures should be taken to suspend loan recovery for the next two years. They also urged that minimum compensation of 25,000 rupees per acre for crop loss, continuous electricity supply, and increase in sugarcane price be provided to farmers in distress.