In a bid to reach out to farmers in Uttar Pradesh, Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati has directed her MPs ( Rajya Sabha) and legislators to distribute one month’s salary among the distressed farmers in their constituencies. They have been told that instead of donating one month’s salary to an official agency, the MPs, MLAs and MLCs should distribute the money among to the farmers affected by unseasonal rains and hailstorm.
“It will bring immediate relief to farmers and will discourage them from taking extreme measures like suicide in the absence of relief from the Central and State governments,” the BSP president said on Sunday.
Ms. Mayawati’s directives to her MPs, MLAs and MLCs come a day after Revenue and Irrigation Minister Shivpal Singh Yadav appealed to Ministers and MLAs to donate one month’s salary to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund for the affected farmers. Mr. Yadav took the lead in donating one month’s salary. But, the BSP president has taken an independent line, different from that of the senior Uttar Pradesh Minister, whose appeal was mainly made to the ruling Samajwadi Party functionaries. In her directives to her party’ MPs and legislators, Ms. Mayawati has stressed direct contact with families of the affected farmers.
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Referring to the nationwide agitation by the BSP on farmers’ issues, Ms. Mayawati said in the first phase of the programme on April 27, demonstrations would be held at all district headquarters in the State.
The BSP president lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Akhilesh Yadav for going on a “foreign tour” at a time when the farmers were either dying of shock or were committing suicide on account of crop loss. The BSP president said some Ministers were getting their photographs related to their visit to the farms published in newspapers even as no steps have been taken to provide immediate relief to the lakhs of affected farmers. She said the large-scale devastation to crops had taken the lid off the Crop Insurance Scheme. “Though crop insurance was widely publicised, the affected farmers are unable to get compensation,” Ms. Mayawati said.