Post News Network
Sambalpur, Nov 9: Farmers of nine western Orissa districts Monday staged demonstrations at their respective district collectorates demanding that a 12-point charter
rallies sought to highlight what the outfit termed as anti-farmer policies being followed by the government. Nearly 20,000 farmers of Bargarh, Boudh, Kalahandi, Bolangir, Subarnapur, Sambalpur, Deogarh and Jharsuguda took part in the agitation.
The fight for the rights of the farmers would be intensified in the coming days, the outfit’s convener Ashok Pradhan said. They would hit the streets again November 14 unless the government concedes their demands by November 13, Pradhan said. The outfit rejected the government’s drought package outright.
Speakers at the rallies said that the government should stop treating farmers like beggars and remember that the farmers form the backbone of the country. Leaders of the outfit said they would strongly respond to negative remarks made by some political leaders, MLAs, MPs and ministers over the farmer deaths, and said people’s representatives should apologise in public for the insensitive remarks on such a sensitive topic.
The engineers and the collectors also owe an explanation to the farmer community about the erroneous reports they submitted to the government over the cause of farmer deaths, the outfit members said, adding the bereaved farmers’ families are to get Rs 6 lakh in Telangana, Rs 5 lakh in Karnataka and Rs 1 lakh in Andhra Pradesh.
The demands of the farmers include – stoppage of water to the industries from Hirakud and other irrigation projects, legal action against private banks, moneylenders, micro finance companies and SHGs charging higher interest rates on the farmers and interest-free loan facility to the farmers through cooperative societies. Besides they also sought insurance facility for crops like ragy, cotton, sugarcane, vegetables and pulses and legal recognition and registration of the sharecroppers.
More than 5,000 farmers each demonstrated at Bargarh and Sambalpur collectorates while 2,000 assembled at Bolangir and 1,500 in Jharsuguda.
Outfit’s convener Pradhan led the rally in Sambalpur while Kusha Panda, Ananta Panda, Niranjan Bidrohi and Arun Mishra addressed the gatherings in Subarnapur, Jharsuguda, Kalahandi and Bolangir respectively.
However, the impact was not felt much at the Nuapada district collectorate.
