A large number of drought-affected farmers, including women, from several districts of Hisar division under the banner of All-India Kisan Sabha reached Hisar on Tuesday and laid siege to the administrative complex demanding official declaration of the region as “drought-hit”.
According to a press release by the Kisan Sabha, all administrative activities came to a halt.
The farmers, who alleged that the worst-affected areas in the State were along the Rajasthan border, also demanded drought relief and compensation.
Kisan Sabha activists charged that deep resentment was prevailing among the peasantry against the Haryana Government’s recent decision reducing the rates of crop loss compensation to half, that is, from Rs.5,000 per acre to Rs.2,700 for wheat, paddy, cotton and so on and Rs.2,100 per acre from the old rates of Rs.4,000 per acre for other crops.
They also hit out at the Bhupinder Singh Hooda regime “for not ordering a special girdawari to assess the extent of damage to crops due to failure of the monsoon’’. State Kisan Sabha general secretary Harpal Singh announced that all the protesters would stay back indefinitely if the administration failed to settle the issues amicably.
CPI (M) State secretary Inderjit Singh supported the gathering on behalf of his party and demanded immediate relief for the affected people.
