Tuesday, 02 April 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) is planning to stage a protest outside the residence of Agriculture minister Ganesh Joshi on April 8. The BKU has accused the minister of ignoring their demands and not addressing their issues. According to the head of the BKU Somdutt Sharma the union has been consistently advocating for the timely payment of farmers by brokers at the Niranjanpur Mandi for the past few months now. Despite repeated pleas, the brokers have disregarded their requests, resulting in past incidents where the Mandi gates were blocked. Although authorities intervened and urged the removal of blockades while pledging to settle the owed amounts, the assurances turned out to be inaccurate, he said.
Dutt further said that consequently, the BKU escalated the matter to the agriculture minister, who had initially committed to disbursing payments to the farmers by March 26. However, as of now the farmers are still awaiting their dues. In view of this, representatives from the BKU and local farmers visited the minister’s residence recently, where he did not meet them, despite his presence there. Dutt further highlighted that the Mandi secretary is circulating misleading videos falsely claiming that the payments have been cleared. Considering the circumstances, the BKU has asked the mandi officials and minister to settle the outstanding payments of the farmers by April 5. Failure to do so will result in the union and farmers visiting the minister’s residence with trolley and trucks to stage a protest, he added.
It will be recalled that the state farmers earlier alleged that brokers in the Mandi have been irregular in settling their dues for some years. The farmers state that they are facing problems in cultivating crops due to lack of funds.
