It seems that the change of guard at the Centre and in Haryana has not changed anything for the farmers as their woes continue and farmers’ suicides are unabated.
With BJP-led Haryana Government turning a blind eye to farmer’s plight and continue denying the increasing cases of farmers’ suicide, the Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) has now appealed to the farmers to go on one year ‘Kheti Awkash’ (self-imposed moratorium on cultivation) to build pressure on Centre and State Government to take welfare measures for the farmers.
Even though the State Government has denied that any farmer has committed suicide in the State, the BKU, Haryana unit has claimed that around 36 farmers has died this year in the agrarian State after suffering huge losses and crop damage. Notably, Haryana Agriculture Minister OP Dhankar had last week denied that the State farmers are committing suicide after their crops were damaged due to untimely rains and hailstorm in the past couple of months in Haryana.
“Suicide is a crime… Haryanavis (farmers) are bold/strong and they do not commit suicide,” Dhankar had said while reacting to reports of farmer’s suicide. Ambala MP Ratan lal Kataria had also last week dismissed the reports of farmers’ suicide as non-issue and stated the issue has been blown out of proportion.
Considering the nonchalant attitude of the State Government towards farmer’s issues, the BKU Haryana unit is now planning to unite the farmers to go on one year ‘Kheti Awkash’ to ensure long-term affect and build pressure on government. Talking to The Pioneer, Haryana BKU president Shamsher Singh Dahiya alleged that the farmers continued to commit suicide while the BJP led State Government is ignoring farmers’ plight.
Crop damage assessment has not been done at many places in the State and the Government is yet to start releasing compensation to the affected farmers. Dahiya claimed that around 36 farmers have committed suicide in the state this year after suffering huge losses.
We have now appealed to the farmers to go on a ‘Kheti Awkash’ for one year and engage in cultivation only for their family and not for the nation. The farmers needed to get united to build pressure on the government and we have convened a meeting in May from 16 states of the country to discuss this issue, he added.
During elections, the farmers were showered with many promises of good times (ache din), but nothing has happened thereafter. We had written to Chief Minister and MPs in Haryana but everybody has failed to assist the farmers during the ongoing crisis, alleged Haryana BKU president.
Dahiya said that a BKU delegation will now meet Haryana Governor to submit a memorandum apprising him about farming crisis. Also, protests would be held against the government, if they fail to take steps for the welfare of farmers in the coming days, he added. The State had received excess rainfall of 466 per cent in March while in April, 591 per cent excess rainfall is witnessed so far resulting in crop damage.
As per the crop damage assessment report of State Government, Rohtak, Gurgaon and Kaithal districts in Haryana has witnessed maximum wheat crop damage with a total of 2.62 lakh acres wheat acreage getting affected by freak weather conditions. Also, more than 50 percent crop damage has been reported in over one lakh acres of land in the state, stated assessment report received by the State Government from nine districts till April 18.
According to the report, more than 26 percent crop damage had been reported on a total of 275728.7 acres of land in these nine districts. 76 per cent to 100 per cent wheat crop loss was found in Rohtak at an area of 63,108 acres, Gurgaon at 10,245 acres, Kaithal at 5,386 acres, Faridabad 1,986 acres, Yamunanagar at 1,828 acres, Panipat at 986.7 acres, Karnal 1,392 acres and Ambala at 1,291 acres.
The State Government is expecting wheat production of 113.99 lakh tonnes this season against last season’s production of 118 lakh tonnes. The BJP-led State Government had last month sought assistance of Rs1,136 crore from the Centre to compensate the loss to the crops in Haryana.