Rahul tables farmers toll in LS

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday tabled in Lok Sabha a list of farmers who died during farm law protests and demanded compensation for next of kin of those who died in farm laws agitation.

Speaking during Zero Hour, Gandhi said that 700 farmers died in year long farms law agitation.

He pointed out that agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar has told the Parliament that he had no data on how many farmers had died during these agitations.

“We have found that Punjab government has given `5 lakh compensation to 400 farmers and given jobs to 152 farmers. I have got the list and I will table it in the house. We have also made another list of 70 farmers who are from Haryana and I will table that too,” he Gandhi.

“What your government is saying that no farmer died or you don’t have the names. So these are the names,” he said. Gandhi said that government should look at the list.

“I want that the farmers be given their rights, they should be given compensation as well as jobs,” he said. “Prime Minister has sought apology from the country and the farmers.

And he accepted that he made a mistake,” said Gandhi. Congress members demanded a statement from the government on the issue.

“I asked questions in Parliament on agrarian injustice — Will the farmers who died get compensation? Is the government considering doing something on MSP? How did Covid affect agriculture? They did not answer the first two questions and answered the third — ‘Farming continued smoothly during the pandemic!’ What a joke!” Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi, using the hashtag “#Farmers”.

“Not giving compensation to farmers who died while protesting, not giving jobs and not withdrawing police cases against

(farmers) will be big mistakes. After all, how many times will the Prime Minister apologise,” he said in another tweet, using the hashtag “#FarmersProtest”.