Farmers throw potatoes in front of CM’s residence
LUCKNOW: In a symbolic protest, several quintals of potatoes were thrown by angry farmers on the roads in front of Vidhan Bhawan, chief minister’s residence and the Raj Bhawan here on Saturday morning. The rotting potatoes were dumped on the high security VIP roads under the cover of foggy night by unidentified farmers, who were allegedly angry with the government as they were not getting the minimum price for their produce.
LUCKNOW: In a symbolic protest, several quintals of potatoes were thrown by angry farmers on the roads in front of Vidhan Bhawan, chief minister’s residence and the Raj Bhawan here on Saturday morning.
The rotting potatoes were dumped on the high security VIP roads under the cover of foggy night by unidentified farmers, who are allegedly angry with the government as they are not getting the minimum price for their produce.
“We are getting Rs 3-4 per kg from the ‘mandis’ while we want Rs 10 per kg. What else do we do when our pleas are falling on deaf ears,” IANS quoted an unidentified farmer as saying.
The Yogi Adityanath government, in its very second cabinet meeting after coming to power, had fixed Rs 487 per quintal as the minimum support price for potato.
“But several farmers in the state are not even getting Rs 2 per kg and are forced to dump their produce on the roadsides in the entire potato belt and elsewhere in the state,” said Samajwadi Party national secretary and the chief spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary.
Uttar Pradesh agriculture minister Surya Pratap Shahi, however, denied the allegations and said the present state government was committed to the welfare of the farmers, especially potato growers.
“This appears to be some political conspiracy to defame the government,” he alleged while adding that the potato thrown on the roads were of poor quality.
Despite the fact that the areas are high-security zones, there was no police to prevent farmers from throwing potatoes in such large quantity.
Later in the day, SSP Deepak Kumar ordered suspension of four constables and a sub-inspector. While a sub-inspector and two constables are from Gautampali police station (close to the Kalidas Marg), the other two constables are from Hazratganj police station (close to Vidhan Sabha Marg).
“The Hazratganj night inspector Rahul Sonkar had spotted a mini-truck throwing potatoes. He noted the number of the truck and it has been tracked down. So far no political outfit’s involvement has been found,” said the SSP.
According to police, the farmers did not raise any slogans or wave any flags or banners in protest. They simply offloaded their produce on the roads.
Many destitutes and rickshaw-pullers, on learning about the incident, came scurrying to the Vidhan Sabha Marg to pick up potatoes.
Later, they were spotted barbecuing them in the bonfires that the administration has put to help them protect themselves from the cold wave.
Within hours, the Lucknow district administration got the roads cleaned, first with brooms and then by washing them with motorised water sprinklers.
Earlier in October, hundreds of sugarcane farmers had burnt their crop outside Vidhan Bhawan. The protest was organised by the Bharatiya Kisan Union.