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Chandigarh, October 9 – Bharatiya Kisan Union (Rajewal) president Balbir Singh Rajewal today urged the farming community not to be misled by leftist farmer organizations who he said were trying to incite violence in the State despite the fact that chief minister Parkash Singh Badal had stepped in to offset the losses suffered by cotton growers by announcing a Rs 643 crore relief package.
In a statement here, Balbir Rajewal the farmers should also take note of the past agitations by some farmer organizations which has resulted in violence. “Inciting violence and running movements by making farmers victims is no way to protect the interests of farmers. In fact such tactics only prove that these agitations are remote controlled by others who are definitely not farmers”, Rajewal added.
The BKU leader said the farming community must understand that the compensation of Rs 8,000 per acre announced and released by the Punjab government had provided immediately relief to farmers. “Government of india compensation norms allowed for a relief of only Rs 3,000 per acre but the State stepped in to increase this substantially keeping in view the gravity of the situation”, he added.
The farmer leader detailed how Punjab had moved quickly and tried its best to ameliorate the lot of farmers by coming out with a relief package. He said in direct contrast Haryana was yet to announce a relief package. “The Haryana government has not even finished doing the girdwari to access the loss suffered by farmers despite the fact that the damage due to white fly pest attack has been most in Haryana”. He said Rajasthan, whose farmers had also suffered huge losses due to whitefly attack, had not even ordered a girdwari.
Urging farmer organizations to sit down and talk about their genuine grievances with the government after lifting their blockade of rail traffic, Rajewal also urged them not to make illogical demands even as he asserted that the Punjab government had already ensured purchase of 1509 variety of basmati. He said the BKU (Rajewal) was also in talks with the government to find ways and means to better the lot of Punjab farmers for which discussions would also be held with chief minister Parkash Singh Badal. “We will also take up remaining demands of farmers with the centre”, he said adding these included the need to procure basmati to ensure farmers were not shortchanged as well as a transparent and farmer sensitive yard stick to calculate the msp for both wheat the paddy crops”
