Belagavi: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday said he will lead a delegation to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to urge the government to treat co-operative banks on a par with commercial banks in the interest of farmers.

Speaking to reporters in Belagavi, Siddaramaiah said prohibiting District Central Cooperative (DCC) banks from accepting old notes had severely affected farmers and agricultural activities.

He said lakhs of farmers in Karnataka, who bank with district co-operative banks, have been cut off from the banking system as demonetisation has affected their loan repayments. Siddaramaiah said he would invite leaders of the Opposition to be part of the team to impress upon Jaitley to review a recent Reserve Bank of India circular that barred farmers from paying back their loans, drawing fresh loans and depositing cash in DCC banks.

He said legislators from both the Congress and the BJP involved in the co-operative sector had requested him to lead the delegation to meet Jaitley, sources said.

Earlier, the issue of demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes reverberated in the Legislative Assembly with JD(S) members demanding that they be allowed to raise the issue and its impact on co-operative banks and farmers. As the House began its proceedings for the day, JD(S) members Y S V Datta and H D Revanna sought to move an adjournment motion seeking a discussion on the inconvenience caused to farmers such as repayment of crop loans as DCC banks had been barred from accepting and exchanging scrapped notes.

However, Speaker K B Koliwad decided to take up discussion on drought.

He said the issue may be raised during the debate on drought and a preliminary submission on demonetisation cannot be permitted, even as JD(S) members insisted that the two issues should not be clubbed.

After the Question Hour, JD(S) members barged into the well of the House seeking time for raising the issue. Leader of the Opposition Jagadish Shettar stated that the JD(S) members were raising an issue which comes under the purview of Parliament and not state legislatures.

Koliwad requested the JD(S) members to adhere to the decisions taken at the Business Advisory Committee meeting. But they did not relent and the House was adjourned for 10 minutes.