BHOPAL: The statewide farmers’ protest that was to start from June 1 was called off after assurance of the chief minister (CM) Kamal Nath. In a closed door meet with the CM, farmers union led by national president of Bharatiya Kisan Mazdoor Mahasangh Shiv Kumar Sharma and state president Narayan Patel, it was decided that the demands of the farmers will be met and for that a committee will be formed. Farmers’ representatives from across 50 districts were also present in the meet. Sharma while talking to Free Press said they have a series of demands and CM has assured us of giving us a hearing through an empowered Kisan Samanway Samiti.
CM Kamal Nath assured the farmers about a state-level committee to address the problems of farmers. The committee will work for mediating between farmers and the government. The CM also instructed to form an appeal committee at district level. Patel said the protest that was set to start from June 1 has been put off as we are awaiting response from the committee. He said the committee will work for implementation of our demands after going through their technical aspects and the feasibility of the demands and that within three months, it will again hold a meeting with us.
Patel said the committee will be headed by the chief minister Kamal Nath himself and will have other members in it. This will go through all our demands after going through the feasibility of the list of demands. We have given our demand list to the CM and he will take steps for it, he said. He also said that any union that is working for farmers has our in principal support but our union will not participate in any protest on streets. The meet was attended by office bearers of farmers union from across 50 districts and along with the chief minister agriculture minister Sachin Yadav and other officials were also present.
Farmers protest, dump veggies
On the day when chief minister Kamal Nath met farmers union leaders and assured to constitute a committee to address their woes, another section of the union staged protest in Misrod over the farm loan waiver. However, later the union called off its protest after talks with the CM Kamal Nath. Earlier aggrieved farmers dumped their vegetables on road on Wednesday and raised anti-government slogans alleging government’s failure to execute its poll promise on farm loan waiver. A number of farmers from all across the state had flocked to the state capital and staged protest seeking to know government’s stand on loan waiver claims. Farmers’ union leader Anil Yadav said the government has not waived off the farm loan which it had promised before the assembly polls.
