Sanawad (Madhya Pradesh): Scores of farmers from Nimar region under the banner of Rashtriya Kisan Majdoor Mahasangh held a massive protest at Sanawad Bus Stand to draw the attention of administration and government towards their long pending demands.
Farmers have given a five-day ultimatum to the government and have threatened to boycott voting if their demands are not met.
In his address, farmers’ leader Inder Birla said that the government and administration considers that farmers to be puppets. The demands of the farmers are not shared with the higher ups. They take our applications and memorandums and shelve them here.
He warned the government that if this year the farmers do not get the compensation for their crops, then the farmers will have no option but to come to road and stage a violent protest.
They gave five-day ultimatum to the government and said that they will gheraoe SDM office and show black flags to the leaders when they will visit their town in future.
Farmers’ leaders Udit Nandia and Ashish Choudhary said that if the demands of the farmers are not accepted, then the farmers of entire Nimar will boycott the voting during the upcoming by-elections. Choudhary said that in 2018, the government had announced compensation amount in lieu of crop failure of the farmers.
The farmers have received only 25 % of the compensation. Choudhary said that this year the main crop of the farmers, soybean, chilli, cotton, has been spoiled. Compensation should be given by conducting a survey of crop damage at the earliest.
Proper arrangement of water should be made for the farmers in Bedia chilli mandi. It has been demanded in the memorandum that 12 hours electricity should be given to the farmers, illegal trade should be stopped in Bedia Mandi. Access roads should be made to the fields.
The memorandum also demanded that violent incidents like Lakhimpur Kheri should be stopped, black agriculture law should be withdrawn. The recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission should be implemented. They demanded that 100% crop of farmers should be purchased on support price. CCI should buy cotton and the moisture content of cotton should be accepted at 30 to 40 %. Arvind Birla Bhulgaon proposed the vote of thanks.
