BHOPAL: The RSS-associated agrarian outfit Bhartiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) took to the streets across BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh on Monday over farmers’ related issues, particularly problems related to the distribution of fertilisers.
According to an official statement from the BKS in Bhopal, the party conducted a protest at all district headquarters across state and submitted memorandums to the respective district administrations. The party has also addressed this issue to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Madhya Pradesh CM Dr Mohan Yadav.
“Since the last many days, the BKS office bearers, along with thousands of farmers have been raising farmers' issues, including those about electricity problems, fertilizer related woes, spurious pesticides and seeds related problems via memorandums submitted at tehsil levels. But with the government not paying attention, the protests happened at the district headquarters level followed by the submission of memorandums to the district administrations on Monday,” the BKS statement added.
The BKS protests across the state on a host of farmers’ issues, including the fertiliser supply-related problem, happened three days after the opposition Congress workers had reportedly forced the motorcade of union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to stop on the road in Satna district of Vindhya region.
Chouhan subsequently stepped out of his car and met the Congress activists and farmers led by local MLA Siddharth Kushwaha and assured to take up the matter about the supply of fertilizers with the central government and the MP CM Dr Mohan Yadav.
In the recent past, there have been reports about police using force on farmers lined up outside fertiliser supply centres in Rewa and Bhind districts.
On Monday, there were reports about clashes between two groups of farmers outside a fertiliser distribution centre in Gwalior-Chambal region’s Morena district, which reportedly resulted in injuries to at least three farmers.
In Sheopur district of the same region, angered over the delay in distribution of fertilisers, farmers reportedly pelted stones outside one of the centres.
While the RSS-associated BKS activists submitted memorandums across the state at individual district headquarters on Monday on a host of farmers issues, the farmer outfit’s national general secretary Mohini Mohan Mishra will be in Ujjain on Tuesday.
Mishra will participate in a mega farmers’ tractors rally over the issue of building a permanent spiritual city in Ujjain ahead of Simhastha (Kumbh Fair) 2028 through land pooling of farmers' lands.
Meanwhile, the state’s CM allayed the farmers' fears pertaining to the Land Pooling Act, ahead of the BKS’s Tuesday protest in Ujjain.
“Our feeling is that we should communicate with everyone and think about the interests of all. The government is working to promote religious tourism by working on security arrangements, better management and permanent structures in Maha Kumbh. The government is taking all the farmers along,” the CM said.