The All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) will organise a nationwide campaign from November 7 by taking out jathas from different parts of the country highlighting the anti-farmer policies being pursued by the Union government and demanding, among other things, waiver of loans availed of by farmers from nationalised and cooperative banks.
National committee member of AIKS and president of the Karnataka Pranta Raitha Sangha (KPRS) Maruti Manpade told presspersons here on Sunday that the jathas from different parts of the country would converge in New Delhi on November 24 in a show of strength, demanding early conceding of their demands.
Mr. Manpade said that the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre has been brazenly going ahead in implementing its anti-farmer and pro-corporate policies through various executive measures. He said that 36 lakh square metres of agriculture land has been acquired for 10 industrial corridors, including Jammu-Delhi, Mumbai-Delhi, Kolkata-Delhi, Ahmedabad-Delhi and Chennai-Delhi.
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“The acquisition of fertile farm land has been going on when the country was facing a serious crisis of falling agriculture production due to which the rural economy was in a shambles,” the farmer leader said.
Mr. Manpade said that the farmers should raise their voice in unison to oppose the indirect and direct FDI in agriculture which would sound the death knell to Indian agriculture and throw open opportunities for corporate agriculture.
Mr. Manpade said that the campaign in Karnataka would be launched from Basavakalyan in Bidar district on November 7 and the jatha from Basavakalyan would visit Kalaburagi, Yadgir, Raichur, Ballari, Koppal, Bagalkot, Dharwad and reach Belgavi on November 16. Sri Siddarama Swamiji of Baladal would inaugurate the campaign at Basavakalyan.
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The other demands included the grant of Rs. 10 lakh as compensation for families of farmers who committed suicide due to loan burden and crop failures; the Land Reforms Act should be further amended to provide 5 acres of agriculture land to landless Dalit farmers; the Natural Disaster Relief Fund norms should be further amended with a provision to provide Rs. 50,000 as compensation per acre to farmers who had lost their crop due to heavy rain or drought; the M.S. Swaminathan Commission report should be implemented in toto; the minimum support price should be fixed as per the recommendations of the committee, and the minimum number of guaranteed employment under MGNREGA should be increased to 200.