The Bharati Kisan Union on Thursday asserted that the election manifesto should be made legally binding on the political parties so that they are held responsible and accountable for the promises made to the citizens while getting their votes.
The farmers’ outfit also demanded that the election manifesto should contain the timeframe to fulfil promises and also the roadmap for its implementation.
To press for the same, BKU would shortly submit a memorandum to the Election Commission requesting to make the election manifesto legally binding.
In addition to this, BKU condemned the Punjab Government for refusing to pay Rs 50 per quintal for the sugarcane price sold through private mills.
The decisions were taken during BKU’s meeting, held under the chairmanship of its national president and former MP Bhupinder Singh Mann and state president Baldev Singh Mianpur on Thursday, which was attended by large number of farmer leaders.
“Before the elections, the political parties make tall promises in their manifestos to influence and woo voters in its favour. After the elections are over, these political parties simply forget these promises and the voters feel cheated and fooled by these false promises,” said Mann.
The meeting also decried the Narendra Modi Government for failing to take even a single step towards relieving the farmers of the high debt burden. “The debt on farmers is because of wrong policies of the successive governments and not because of any fault of the farmers,” he said.
BKU also condemned Modi for cheating the farmers by going back on the promise to implement Swaminathan Report, while terming the Modi Government as anti-farmer.
The farmers’ outfit demanded that the menace of stray cattle and stray dogs should be dealt by the Government on priority. There should be no ban on sale and purchase of milk cows across the states, he added.