Crop burning or suicide are not the solution of agricultural crisis and farmers across the State should come forward and fight for their cause, the All India Kishan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC) has said.
A panel of the AIKSCC, Odisha chapter, declared it after returning from Bargarh district on the issue of draught, crop loss, crop burning and suicide of farmers and described the situation as a reflection of anti-farmer policies taken by the State and Central Governments.
The panel visited the Bargarh and Bhatli block area on November 4 and saw the plights of farmers after the total failure of pesticide control system due to ‘Chakada’ insect in thousands of acres of paddy field.
They also visited the family members of deceased farmer Brundaban Sahu, who committed suicide after the crop loss. After a discussion with the farmers about their problems and grievances, the team members also met the district Collector and apprised him about the grim situation faced by the farmers and submitted him a memorandum with 5- point demands and also to the Chief Minister on November 6.
The demands raised by the panel include Rs 20 lakh compensation to all farmers who lost their life due to suicide and 10 decimal home stead land patta to the homeless persons like deceased Brundaban Sahu, `20,000 to the farmers as minimum compensation for crop loss for per acre, major awareness programme against farmers suicide and crop fire, appropriate steps to free all farmers from debt and institutional loans without interest, exemption of all taxes of farmers, support to all farmers of drought area for coming Ravi crop with seed, fertilizer and pest control. Besides, it demanded that accountability should be fixed with the district Collectors for distress sale of agricultural produces.
Khirod Singhdeo, Suresh Panigrahi, Ashok Pradhan, Jyotiranjan Mohapatra, Sankar Sahu, Basudev Das, Narendra Mohanty, Sangram Parisad and Asish Kanungo and Mahendra Parida were in the panel.