No money to purchase bullocks, sons of MP farmer pull plough
A farmer in Madhya Pradesh’s Dindori district was forced to take the help of his sons to plough his field as the family did not have enough money to buy bullocks, barely a month after a similar incident was reported in the central state’s Sehore district.
Gohra Singh, a resident of Dindori’s Mohini village that is about 415 kilometres south east of state capital Bhopal, started using his two sons in the field after one of his two bullocks died some time ago. Singh told the local media he had to use his sons in place of the bullocks as it was the paddy sowing season.
CR Ahirwar, sub divisional officer (agriculture), said the government scheme to provide a pair of bullocks to farmers was stopped long ago as they now use tractors to till their land.
“There is a provision that a farmer in need can plough his field up to four hectares for which the department will make the payment,” he said.
The state’s labour, food and civil supplies minister Om Prakash Dhurvey, who belongs to the district, directed Dindori district officials to arrange a meeting with Singh after he came to know about the incident. The minister handed over a cheque of ₹20,000 to Singh so that he could buy a bullock.
In July, a video and photographs of the two tribal girls helping their father in place of bullocks for ploughing for removal of weeds in Sehore, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s home district, had gone viral.
Sardar Barela told local media he was taking the help of Radha and Kunti to till and level his small farm in place of bullocks.
Madhya Pradesh saw an outburst of farmers over loan waiver and higher crop prices, which poses a challenge for Chouhan, the BJP chief minister since 2005, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has promised to double farmers’ incomes over the next five years.
Desperate farmers launched a mass protest in Mandsaur, which turned violent and six people died in police firing on June 6. Several farmers have committed suicide in the state over back-to-back droughts, freak hailstorms and mounting crop loans.