Farmers vent anger over Centre’s apathy

| | Haridwar
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Farmers vent anger over Centre’s apathy

Tuesday, 25 September 2018 | PNS | Haridwar

The Kisan Kranti Yatra kicked off from Haridwar by Bhartiya Kisan Union (Tikait group) on Sunday afternoon has evoked a good response among the farmers from Haridwar district. The rally would culminate at Kisan Ghat in Delhi on October 2, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. Given the enthusiasm shown by the farmers from the district, particularly those from the villagers under Laksar tehsil, the organisers hope that hundreds of farmers from here would participate in the maha Kishan rally In Delhi.  As per the programme, the farmers who would gather there would serve a memorandum to the Centre, venting their grievances regarding the alleged apathy of the Narendra Modi Government towards the suffering of the farmers.

Thousands of farmers from across the country gathered in Haridwar on Sunday afternoon and took part in the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Tikait group)-organised Kisan Kranti Yatra.

The farmers who participated in the rally alleged that Modi-led BJP Government had done nothing for the farmers over the past four years.

They said that the Centre working for the industrialists had landed the farmers in grave crisis.

One of them Raj Pal from Laksar said that reeling under mounting debt, the farmers are ending life. “Those who are feeding the nation are committing suicide to get relief from the burden of loans taken from banks and others. Yet, the Centre is sitting on our suffering. They have not yet framed any policy to cater to our interests, busy as they are to pander to the interests of the industrialists,” he said.  

Another farmer Nathu Singh of Bhagwanpur who has the distinction of participating in a number of Kisan movements against the Centre and the State Government organised by the same Tikait group over the years said, “Things are really very grim for us. Seeds and cereals are being imported from foreign companies,” he said.

He, further, said that the small farmers who constitute nearly two third of the Indian populace are terribly suffering thanks to the nonchalance of the Centre regarding their worsening plight. He said that thousands of peasants from Laksar tehsil and Haridwar district would march to Delhi to participate in the mega rally.  

The common refrain among the farmers here is that the compensation due to the sugarcane growers is yet to be cleared and the Centre’s Kisan Beema Yojna is meant to favour the insurance companies and not the farmers.

Speaking to The Pioneer, gram pradhan Digamber Singh said, “We want our loans to be waived off by the Government as it has been done in Uttar Pradesh by the Chief Minister there.

Here, just assurances are being dished out and nothing is being done on the ground. Our demands are very much justified, given the crisis we are in.

Aside from the loan waiver, the farmers must be given free electricity and the Government’s policy of   putting old tractors out of use must be scrapped.” He, further, said that the Kisan Kranti Yatra would prove a milestone as far as the future movements of the agriculturists are concerned.

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