Poor MP farmer uses daughters in place of oxen to pull plough
SEHORE (MP): Unable to buy a pair of oxen due to acute poverty, a farmer from the home district of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, has been using his two minor daughters in place of the oxen to pull the plough for the last two years.
As a shocking video of Radha, 13 and Kunti, 9, roped in the plough in place of the oxen to furrow the field by their 42-year-old father Sardar Barela in Bastanpur Pangari village, some 60 kms away from the district headquarters, went viral, an embarrassed district administration rushed a revenue official to the farmer on Saturday.
Besides being the home district of the chief minister, Sehore is a part of Vidisha Lok Sabha constituency being represented by senior BJP leader and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.
Shockingly, Barela has been using his daughters for ploughing for the last two years.
"As I don't have money to buy bulls, I have no option but to ask my daughters to pull the plough who have been doing it for the last two years," Barela said. The hapless farmer said neither he had money to educate Radha and Kunti, nor was he able to reap the benefits of the beneficial schemes of the government.
After the video of Barela and his daughters ploughing the field went viral, the district authorities have appealed to the farmer to stop the practice.
"After the incident came to our knowledge, we rushed officials to the village. We will ensure that Barela gets the benefit of the government schemes," said district PRO Ashish Sharma. NEW DELHI: Weeks after the Army rejected an indigenously-built assault rifle, the government has decided to speed up the procurement procedure for over 1.85 lakh high calibre guns to replace ageing INSAS rifles.
The Army has been pressing for fast tracking the supply of the 7.62x51 mm guns and particularly sought immediate procurement of at least 65,000 rifles to enhance its fire power in border areas and in counterterror operations.
Already nearly 20 gun manufacturers including a number of foreign entities have responded to the request for information (RFI) for the assault guns and steps are being taken to move the procurement process speedily, official sources said.
Last month, the Army had rejected the 7.62x51 mm guns built by the state-run Rifle Factory, Ichapore, citing poor quality and ineffective fire power.
The Army is badly in need of the assault rifles and the contract for the guns is likely to be finalised in the next few months.
Official sources said there were "excessive number of faults" in the guns manufactured by the rifle factory and "complete redesigning of the magazine" was needed to consider the guns to be used by the Army. The Army last year had rejected another indigenously- built assault rifle called the 5.56 mm Excalibur guns as it did not meet the required standards.
In its RFI, the Army had specified effective range of the 7.62x51 mm guns at 500 metres, adding they should be as light as possible in weight.
It had also mentioned that the guns should be capable of "fitting and firing" under barrel grenade launcher manufactured by Ordnance Factory, Trichy.