ExCM Hooda to hold ‘kisan panchayats’ from June 25
Seeks implementation of Swaminathan panel report, loan waiver for farmers, MSP of sugarcane at ₹400 per quintal among other demands
Former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda spelt out his ‘kisan panchayats’ schedule on Saturday and held that he would hold similar meetings with traders, employees and others to take up their issues against the ruling BJP government, which he held had failed on all fronts.
Earlier in the day, Hooda led a delegation of 12 Congress MLAs to the Raj Bhawan to submit a memorandum, addressed to the President of India, pertaining to the plight of farmers in the state. The MLAs included former speakers Kuldeep Sharma, Raghubir Kadian and senior MLAs Karan Dalal, Anand Singh Dangi and Geeta Bhukkal. In the House of 90, Congress has 17 MLAs.
Addressing mediapersons, Hooda said that on June 25, he would hold a kisan panchayat in Rewari, on June 30 in Sirsa, on July 1 in Sonepat, on July 6 at Nuh and on July 8 in Jind. “Likewise, we will hold such panchayats in all 22 districts of the state later this year and also hold meetings with different strata of society to be their voice against the ruling government,” he said.
To the question of participation of the faction led by state party president Ashok Tanwar and other leaders including Capt Ajay Yadav in these programmes, Hooda said that he had given an open invitation to all the “well wishers of farmers to join him’’.
Lashing out at the BJP, he alleged that telling lies was the BJP’s neeti (policy), rajniti (politics) and ran niti (strategy) and it had been fooling people with these.
Elaborating upon the memorandum, Hooda said that the Congress demanded that the BJP fulfilled its poll promise of implementing the Swaminathan commission report, waive farmers’ loans, fix minimum support price (MSP) of sugarcane at ₹400 per quintal, lower prices of petrol and diesel, give crop insurance cover with farmers’ consent and give free power and water supply to the people living under below poverty line (BPL), besides other demands of the farmers.