The UP Congress staged demonstrations at all district headquarters of the state on Saturday to protest the anti-farmers policies of the Samajwadi Party Government, particularly the low cane price announced by it. The Congress leaders handed over memorandums addressed to the Governor to the district magistrates of their respective districts, seeking justice for the farmers.
The memorandum urged Governor Bl Joshi to intervene in the cane price issue so that the farmers got fair returns for their produce. Surprisingly, UP Congress Committee president Nirmal Khatri and other senior leaders, including all the Union ministers from UP, stayed away from the protests on Saturday.
The only exception was Congress Member of Parliament from Barabanki, Pl Punia, who led the demonstration in his lok Sabha constituency. Hitting out at the Samajwadi Party Government for bowing to the pressures of the private sugar mill owners, Punia said the Akhilesh Yadav regime had no concern for the farmers and poors and had failed to give the farmers their rightful dues.
"The state Government has not only done nothing to clear the pending cane dues of the farmers but has also reduced the purchase price of sugarcane, leaving the growers to either sell their crop at throwaway price or commit suicide," Punia said. Another exception was Congress MP and former state president of the party, Jagdambika Pal, who led the protest in Siddharthnagar.
Pal said that due to the apathy of the state Government, the farmers were forced to burn their crops in the fields as the cost of harvesting sugarcane and transporting it to the market was more they what they would get for their produce. In lucknow, waving black flags and raising slogans against the state Government for its anti-farmers attitude, hundreds of Congressmen led by Neeraj Bora, Amit Srivastava, Maroof Khan, Veerandra Madan, Amarnath Agarwal, Zeeshan Haider, Pramod Singh, Siddharth Srivastava, Onkar Singh and Vinod Mishra, staged a demonstration outside the collectorate on Saturday afternoon. In western UP also Congress MlAs and district unit chiefs led the demonstration and handed over memorandum to the district magistrates, demanding immediate payment of cane dues to the farmers and adequate price for their crops.
UPCC spokesman Zeeshan Haider said the Congress would not remain a mute spectator to the government's atrocities on the farmers which had forced some of them to commit suicide. Haider said the demonstrations and protests would continue until the farmers got their right