Farmers’ agitation fails to have major impact
The ‘gaon bandh’ (village shutdown) agitation called by the Kisan Mahapanchayat in Rajasthan on Sunday turned out to be a damp squib with the government ensuring that supply of essential commodities was not affected.
Kisan Mahapanchayat and other farmer bodies had called for a statewide agitation demanding that the government waive off agricultural loans. The administration on Saturday cancelled the permission given to farmers to hold a demonstration at the Gandhi circle in the city.
A group of farmers and activists were detained on Sunday morning and taken to Pratap Nagar police station and released later in the day.
“This was only a token agitation. Our struggle will continue until the government meets our main demands of loan waiver and fixing minimum support price at 50% above the cost price,” Kisan Mahapanchayat president Rampal Jat said. “Farmers are committing suicide because of debts. The government should take steps to ensure that farmers don’t have loans,” he said.
Apart from loan waiver, farmers’ organisations have been demanding passage of a Farmers’ Security Act and implementation of the recommendations of the MS Swaminathan Commission.
RSS-affiliated Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) had started a mahapadao (sit-in) on June 15 but called off the agitation on June 19 after holding talks with the state government.
That government assured BKS that a law would be brought in to make buying of farmers’ produce below MSP a punishable offence. A committee will study the laws in Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. Electronic weighing machines, the government said, will be installed at all mandis within six months. The government did not give any assurance on farm loan waiver. Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab have waived farmers’ loans.
Last month, farmers restricted milk and vegetable supply in several districts of Rajasthan after the Kisan Mahapanchayat called a bandh to support the farmers’ agitation in Madhya Pradesh.