October 10, 2015 by admin

BKU sends memorandum to Hon’ble President of India

Chandigarh 10 October : Today a high level meeting of the Bharti Kisan Union was held at the head office of BKU which was attended by S. Bhupinder Singh Mann Ex MP and National President BKU, S. Baldev Singh Mianpur President BKU Punjab and Gurbachan Singh Bajwa Gen Secretary Punjab. The meeting was held to deliberate issues of farmers and submit a jointly signed memorandum to Hon’ble President of india to press the demands (given below) of farmers of Punjab who are passing through the worst ever crisis in agrarian history of Punjab. S. Mianpur informed that time has been sought from President’s office for a delegation of farmers to also submit the memorandum in person and this meeting was held apropos big rally at Jalalabad yesterday and demands raised therein.

In a hard hitting statement, BKU leaders described the suicides of 49-50 farmers in the last 60 days are “Murders by Government”. They expressed deep anguish against the Akali BJP Government on the failure of the cotton crop and also compared the condition of farmers during the government of Capt. Amarinder Singh. The Kisan leaders urged the farmers and labourers to unite and through away the Akali BJP government in the next elections.

In the meeting, the BKU leaders ridiculed Parkash Singh Badal and Sukhbir Singh Badal for giving clean chit to Agriculture Minister Tota Singh even when the inquiry is midway. The anti farmer policies of the government have forced the farmers to block the rails and commit suicides. Most shocking and insensitive is the statement by Sukhbir Badal when he said that the farmer’s agitations are politically motivated.

They said that BT cotton was introduced by Capt. Amarinder Singh during his Government and during his tenure of Five years the farmers did not face any problem in selling their produce in the mandis. Now the Akali BJP government, in order to fill their own pockets, have pushed spurious pesticides which has virtually wiped out the entire crop of cotton this year and this will have severe long term socio economic ramifications.

Bhupinder Singh Mann Ex MP said that if you want to save the farmers of Punjab, we have to ensure and make all sincere efforts to make Amarinder Singh’s Government in 2017 so that Punjab can be saved. Akali BJP Government in the Last 8 years have virtually ruined all sectors of Punjab and have engulfed Punjabis like the grip of Anaconda. He appealed to all Punjabis to come together to save Punjab and its future generations.
The BKU leaders cautioned the farmers to be beware of those Kisan Organizations who are acting like puppets in the hands of Akali Government. These Kisan Organizations are used by Badal to divert the attention of the failures of his own government and blame the Center Government. These farmer leaders are wearing a mask of being farmer friendly but actually they are misguiding the farmers for furthering their own benefit by dancing to the tunes of the Government. They have been kept by Badals just to sing paeans for him.

Memorandum/demands sent to Hon’ble President of India

The memorandum was sent to President of india with demand to hold CBI probe in the Pesticide scam which has wiped out almost the entire Cotton crop due to deep rooted greed and corruption of officials, bureaucrats and politicians by supplying spurious pesticides purchased at high prices and without any procedure. This will give justice to 50 farmers who have been “Murdered by the Government”.
It was demanded that farmers should be compensated with Rs 40000/- per acre as their entire crop has been destroyed. Now by giving compensation of Rs 100 – 150 is a big mockery of the already aggrieved farmers.
The memorandum further demanded a compensation of Rs 1500/- per quintal of 1509/1121 basmati. This variety recommended by PAU earlier fetched a price of Rs 3000 to Rs 3500 per quintal. But now the farmers are being forced sell at just Rs 1500 per quintal; i.e at a loss of more than Rs 1500 per quintal.
Memorandum also demanded that the payment of paddy be made with 24 hours.