New Delhi: The three-day “farmers march” of the Congress in Rajasthan culminated on Friday in Jhalawar, the constituency of chief minister Vasundhara Raje. The 100-km-long march was taken out to highlight the plight of the farmers in the state. Congress state unit chief Sachin Pilot accused the state government of hoodwinking the farmers by just appointing a committee to look at the loan waiver. The Congress has demanded a complete loan waiver for the farmers. It has further demanded that farming equipment should be outside the ambit of GST.
The Congress has planned a nationwide agitation on the agrarian stress. Earlier this year, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi visited Mandsaur in MP where farmers were allegedly shot dead by the police. He also visited Rajasthan and addressed a farmers’ rally in the state. According to the Congress, about 75 farmers have committed suicide in Rajasthan because of the policies of the government.
“At least 75 farmers have committed suicide in Rajasthan so far just because of government’s ‘anti-farmer’ policies. The state government is working only to benefit the rich and industrialists,” Mr Pilot said.
Since last year, the Congress has been attacking the government over the treatment being meted out to farmers. The party has been demanding the government to implement the Swaminathan Committee report to help the farmers. The issue of procurement of crops is also high on the agenda as middlemen fleece the farmers.
During the culmination of the “farmers march”, Mr Pilot said, “The BJP government has undertaken an intensive campaign of uprooting farmers; farmers have taken jal-samadhi in Madhya Pradesh and zameen-samadhi in Jaipur’s Nindar. For three days, we have been pressing for farmer-friendly decisions by the state government but rather than address farmers’ concerns, the BJP government is busy issuing statements against us.”
Buckling under pressure the BJP governments in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh have already implemented farm loan waiver. Though, implementation has had a few initial hiccups. But the Rajasthan government has announced a committee on farm loan waiver. Rajasthan Congress wants to make agrarian stress an issue in the polls that are scheduled end of next year
