Urban Mirror Correspondent
New Delhi, June 4: The Lok Gathbandhan Party (LGP) today criticised the NDA government for failing to address the demands of farmers who are agitating for the last three days in Haryana, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Punjab. The LGP said the central as well as the state governments appeared to be totally unconcerned with the demands of the farmers.
The spokesperson of the party said here on Monday the “ten-day Gaon Bandh†(village shutdown) agitation launched by the farmers has already started showing rippling effect on the market, as the farmers have stopped supplies of milk, vegetables and other commodities to urban centres. Apart from loan waiver, the farmers are demanding agrarian reforms, adequate power supply and other facilities to boost farming. The spokesperson said the NDA government except tall promises has done nothing to alleviate the sufferings of the farmers during the last four years. Demanding overhauling of present agriculture policy to solve the problems of farmers, the spokesperson said considering the magnitude of the problem, mere announcements to double the income of farmers through minimum support price (MSP) will not help solve the problems of the community.
The spokesperson said that agriculture sector, ignored for long a time, required multi-pronged strategy to overcome the crises, as successive central governments have so far resorted to only tokenism to solve the farmers issues but it has failed to yield positive results. The spokesperson said the LGP has long been demanding total reform in farm sector with improvement in supply of seeds, fertilizers, programmes for upgrading land, elimination of middlemen in sale of farm produce and double return to farmers according to cost inputs. The spokesperson said LGP also wanted skill development in rural areas so that youth could also be involved in non-agriculture sector to enhance their income without migrating to urban areas. Â Â Â Â Â
The spokesperson said that the agriculture sector’s crisis is deeper than it looks and which cannot not be solved by such government announcements. The spokesperson said less than one-fourth of the country’s cereal production is procured at MSP and mismanagement at procurement centres over the years has demonstrated that farmers preferred market to these government controlled places, where irregularities are galore. The central and state governments, despite making tall claims, never bothered to improve services at these centres. The spokesperson said over the years the governments followed lopsided policy with inadequate support to the sector which has now caused immense miseries to the farmers. The spokesperson said farm sector should be put at par with industrial sector and all equal facilities should be given to improve the situation. (Urban Mirror thanks PTI for image)
