The BJP created a din and later staged a walkout in the state Vidhan Sabha on Monday over the issue of loss of crop due to unseasonal rains and hail storm demanding compensation to the farmers. BJP legislature party leader Suresh Kumar Khanna said that nine farmers have committed suicide over loss of their crop. Standing crops in over two dozen districts have been destroyed. Wheat, linseed, pulse and potato farmers have been affected by this unseasonal rain, he said.
The matter was raised through an adjournment notice by the BJP members. Replying to the notice, state parliamentary affairs minister Mohammad Azam Khan said that the government was sympathetic towards the farmers and whose crops were destroyed in the rains would be compensated. He also said that the government has ordered a survey to evaluate the loss.
“The government is alive to this crisis. We are pro-farmer government and is taking all steps to extend help to the aggrieved people,” he said. Other BJP members including Radha Mohan Das Agarwal and laxmi Kant Bajpai demanded that the government should suspend the realisation of taxes from the aggrieved farmers. They said that farmers were facing problem and the government was not concerned about farmers’ plight.
When the government refused suspension of realisation of taxes, the BJP members staged a noisy walkout of the House. BSP member Dharampal Singh too raised the issue and narrated the woes of the farmers of Agra region. later the notice was rejected by the speaker. PDP: BJP’s alliance with PDP in Jammu and Kashmir and the recent act of the J&K government over releasing a separatist found mention in state assembly on Monday.
The matter was raised by Congress legislature party leader Pradeep Mathur when he called the BJP as UP’s PDP. The statement was opposed by BJP members claiming that the House cannot discuss any matter which is not related to other state. The ruling Samajwadi Party member did not comment on this raging national controversy but they tried to corner the BJP on different issues like the amendment in the land Acquisition Act.