Announcement of the next phase of the unrest to press their demands related to the massive destruction of wheat crops in the heavy rains and hailstorm which lashed Punjab recently.
On Sunday, the Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU Ekta Ugrahan) announced that across the state on April 18, the farm activists will be blocking the rail traffic for four hours from 12 noon to 4 pm.
Sukhdev Singh Kokri Kalan, state general secretary of BKU Ekta Ugrahan said that on April 18, the decision to protest and block rail traffic has been taken in line with the decision of Kaumi Sanyukta Kisan Morcha to pressurize both the Centre and state government to declare the crop destruction in Punjab due to rains and hailstorm as “national disaster” and release full minimum support price (MSP) to farmers.
Kokri Kalan asked, “In Punjab, the crops have been destroyed and should be declared national calamity because politicians from across the country and from all parties call farmers as “anndaata” and the foodgrains from Punjab are transported to various states and feed farmers. And, is even exported to other countries. So why it can’t be declared a national calamity?”
To this, he added that they want to put pressure on the Centre to promptly withdraw the anti-farmer decision of imposing a value cut on the MSP on the pretext of broken and discoloured grains.
He said the other demand is from the Punjab government that “full compensation should be made for damaged crops and houses as meagre compensation of Rs 15,000 per acre” announced by the AAP dispensation was “nothing”. “Farm labourers including women should be compensated immediately. The silly anti-farmer decision to pay the meagre compensation of Rs 15000 per acre only up to five acres should be withdrawn instantly and the government should assure an uninterrupted procurement of wheat and other crops without deduction in the MSP,” he said.
In the first phase of this agitation, he said that the organization has already held a mass protest at the district/tehsil level on April 12, 13 and 14 in 15 affected districts and handed over these demands to deputy commissioners.
He added, “But since the appeal has failed to move the government, the decision has been taken to block the rail traffic. The central and state governments are the only ones to blame for the inconvenience caused to the common people. These governments have forced the farmers to block rail traffic who are already being crushed under the burden of debts by denying the full MSP or full compensation.”
