NEWS ROUND-UP-5
Dharna at Jantar Mantar against anti-farmer policies of UPA
Demanding profitable price of farm products, Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, the leading farmers’ organisation of the country, staged a dharna at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on November 25. Thousands of farmers from different parts of the country participated in the dharna.
The farmers urged the Central government to make Land Acquisition Bill farmers’ friendly, rollback the hike in fertilizers’ prices, make separate budget for agriculture and to constitute farmers protection fund. The farmers warned that their dharna was just a beginning and it would be intensified if their demands were not met.
Addressing the protesters, Kisan Sangh vice president Shri Raghav Reddy expressed anger over the anti-farmers policies of the UPA government and regretted that the government did not learn any lesson from the global recession. “The government still does not regard agriculture as the prime contributor to the process of development. The industrialists and businessmen continue their business only if they get profit. But on the other hand, the farmers continue farm production even after facing repeated losses. Sometimes they do not get even the cost of production. It is due to the impact of growing corporate culture that the products purchased from farmers are sold on higher prices in the retail market. This is the reason the farmers are forced to give up farming. Instead of achieving self-reliance in foodgrain production, the government policies appear at making the country dependent on foreign companies. The acquisition of fertile land for corporate houses is also part of the same policy,” Shri Reddy said.
Kisan Sangh general secretary Shri Prabhakar Kelkar condemned the government apathy towards farmers and said the farmers are forced to commit suicide because they do not get even what they invest in crops. “There are many incidents when the farmers abandoned their crops of potatoes, paddy, cotton in the farm itself, because they do not get even the cost of production. It is also forcing the youth to migrate to urban areas. It is not a good symptom for the healthy society,” he said. Kisan Sangh president Shri Aniruddh Ramchandra Murkute, organising secretary Shri Dinesh Kulkarni, secretaries Shri Jugalkishore Mishra, Shri Mohini Mishra and Shri Sunil Pandey were also present on the occasion.
(IVSK)
