Hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to Baghpat on Sunday afternoon to inaugurate the Eastern Peripehral Expressway, a local farmer, Udayveer Singh, 60, collapsed and died while protesting against the increase in power tariff and the delay in clearance of dues for sugar cane supplied to sugar mills.
Udayveer was staging a sit-in at the sub-divisional office of Baraut in Baghpat area, along with 50 others, demanding payment of hundreds of crores of dues.
The farmers sat on a dharna with Udayveer’s body kept on a slab of ice, about 30 km from the spot where the Prime Minister announced financial support of ₹5.50 a quintal to cane farmers.
Surendra Singh, one of those leading the agitation, told The Hindu that the BJP had promised in its election manifesto that its government would clear the dues in 14 days from the beginning of the crushing season.
“The crushing season is about to end now. But the dues across the State is worth ₹12,000 crore. The other severe problem farmers face is that of power tariff hike. The Yogi Adityanath government revised the power tariffs twice in the last two months. It has raised our input cost on the crops to unimaginable limits,” Mr. Singh said.
He alleged that the State government remained indifferent to the farmers’ problems. “Udayveer, along with us, was protesting for the past several days. No one from the local administration was ready to listen to our problems. and it led to his death. Now the administration is all out trying to be seen as sensitive to our problems. That is the tragedy. No one listens to you when you are alive,” he said.
Additional District Magistrate Lokpal Singh initially announced a compensation of ₹5 lakh for Udayveer’s family and increased it to ₹12 lakh as the outrage over his death grew.
