Samajwadi Party announced that it would pay Rs  25 lakh as ‘Kisan Sahadat Samman Nidhi’ to the families of those farmers who died during the year-long agitation on Delhi-Haryana border where farmers had blocked national highways since November 26 last year.

“The Samajwadi Party will give compensation to the farmers as soon as the party’s Government is formed in Uttar Pradesh after the 2022 assembly elections. The days of the Yogi Adityanath government are numbered and the farmers will wipe out the Bharatiya Janata Party from the state with the strength of their vote. Farmers have lost faith in the BJP government. Fearing electoral setback, the BJP rolled back the three farm laws after the year-long agitation by the farmers. The Narendra Modi government is still reluctant to address the fundamental issues like Minimum Support Price. The farmers will give a befitting reply to the BJP as the Modi government is more interested in protecting the interests of the corporate houses rather than the farmers,” SP president Akhilesh Yadav said in Lucknow on Monday.

The SP chief further alleged that the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh was still playing tricks with the farmers, which was visible at the paddy procurement centres set up by the state government for the purchase of paddy at MSP from the farmers. He said that the officials at purchase centres were hand in glove with the middlemen and traders and were harassing the farmers, forcing them to sell the produce far below the MSP.

Akhilesh charged that the farmers were demanding legal guarantee for the MSP only to get rid of the middlemen and traders and the BJP government was reluctant to concede the just demand. He claimed that with the legal guarantee for the MSP, the multi-national companies (MNCs) and big companies would be compelled to purchase agricultural produce from the farmers as per the MSP.