The two farmer leaders Akshaya Kumar and Seshadeb Nanda, who were arrested by police here on Monday, began fast in the Jharpada Special Jail here protesting the arrest.
Though the jail authorities tried to persuade them to take food, they did not budge from their demand of their early release from the jail.
On Monday, the Commissionerate police arrested the duo in connection with some old cases soon after they called for a mega farmers’ rally in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the Commissionerate police have made elaborate security arrangement in the city in view of the farmers’ rally on Wednesday. Nearly 50 platoons of police forces would be deployed in and around the State Assembly and Secretariat and other strategic locations to maintain law and order.
The Kharavel Nagar police arrested convenor Akshaya Kumar and coordinator Sesadeba Nanda of the Navanirman Krushak Sangathan, an organisation fighting for the cause of farmers, in the cases pending against them in an apparent bid of the Government to sabotage the proposed rally.
Notably, in December 2013, activists of the Sangathan had come before the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s cavalcade near the Secretariat protesting the apathy of the Government towards the farming community.
The Sangathan since long has been demanding provision of Rs 21,600 crore in the Budget to be disbursed among 36 lakh farmers’ families as pension, adequate compensation for the farmers who had been affected by the cyclone Phalin and subsequent floods; additional bonus of Rs 500 per quintal of paddy over the minimum support price fixed by the Centre, effective marketing system and cold storage facility and provision of seeds and fertilisers for farmers.