The farmers in Haryana have announced to launch a Statewide agitation, after their talks with Chief Minister Manohar lal Khattar led State Government ended in deadlock on Friday.
Amid growing resentment among the farming community in the State, Chief Minister Manohar lal Khattar and Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister on Friday held a meeting with a 16-member delegation of Bhartiya Kisan Union (Mann faction), Haryana at CM’s residence here.
Unhappy with the “indifferent” attitude of Haryana Government during the meeting, the BKU delegation, immediately after attending the meeting, announced to launch Statewide agitation against the Government from August 9.
While the Chief Minister met the farmers’ delegation for about 15 minutes, he had to leave for a meeting later. The delegation then apprised the Agriculture Minister OP Dhankar about their grievances and the meeting which lasted for more than one and a half hours ended on an inconclusive note.
During the meeting, the farmers outfit demanded implementation of the Swaminathan Commission report, loan waiver for farmers, retirement allowance of Rs 5 lakh to all farmers after attaining the age of 60 and changes in Pradhan Mantri Bima Fasal Yojna.
“The BJP led Haryana Government has betrayed the farming community. During the meeting, we had demanded the implementation of Swaminathan report as promises in BJP poll manifesto and raised other farmers’ issues. However, Cabinet Minister OP Dhankar conveyed his denial on most of the issues raised by the BKU delegation,” said Rattan Mann, Haryana president of Bhartiya Kisan Union (Mann faction) while talking to The Pioneer.
Criticising the State Government for the apathetic attitude towards farmers, Mann claimed that during the meeting, Dhankar kept rejecting our demands on various issues.
He added while the Chief Minister had assured us to resolve our grievances, the Agriculture Minister did not respond positively to our demands.
Mann said that BKU will launcha a Statewide agitation on August 9 from Karnal district against the BJP led Haryana Government. The farmers will hold protest dharnas, marches against the State Government to press for their demands, he added.
On the other hand, Agriculture Minister OP Dhankar, while talking to the mediapersons said that we were apprised about the grievances of farmers during the meeting. The Government is considering the demands of the farmers but any decision cannot be taken in one meeting, he said.
On demand of implementation of Swaminathan report, the Minister said that the State Government is implementing the recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission in a step-wise manner.
At present, various farmers organisations are holding protest dharnas in parts of Haryana demanding immediate implementation of Swaminathan report, loan waiver for debt-ridden farmers, enhanced minimum support price (MSP) on crops among other steps for farmers welfare after Madhya Pradesh’s Mandsaur incident in which six farmers were killed during police firing.
Recently on yoga day on June 21, the farmers under BKU (Mann faction) had performed “hath yoga” at various locations in the State. The farmers had demonstrated their protest by performing the ‘shavasana’ and ‘shirshasana’ on State highways.
While BKU (Mann faction) was invited for the meeting on Friday, the State Government did not invite other farmers’ outfits for holding talks. Following this, other BKU factions in Haryana have alleged that the BJP is trying to weaken and divide the farming community in the State.
Meanwhile, politicking has also picked up over the farmer protests, as opposition parties are also holding protest dharnas in various parts of Haryana. While former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda is holding kisan panchayats, Indian National lok Dal is holding protest demonstrations to lend their support to the farming community.
launching a scathing attack on BJP led Central and Haryana Governments, senior Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda while addressing a kisan panchayat at Sirsa on Friday said that the BJP Government is pursuing anti-farmer policies.
The BJP, before the polls, had promised to implement the Swaminathan Commission report, but once it came to power it “forgot about the farmers”, Hooda alleged.