Jakhar meets farmers, will lead their protest in Abohar tomorrow

Monday, 05/10/2015

http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx

FEROZEPUR: The Congress has decided to hold a state-level protest to highlight the ‘pathetic condition’ of farmers in Abohar on Monday.

Congress legislature party (CLP) leader in the Punjab assembly and Abohar MLA Sunil Kumar Jakhar, who will lead the protest, said here on Sunday that a large number of farmers from all districts of the state would join the protest that would also highlight the apathetic attitude of the SAD-BJP government towards farmers.

The protest was planned after a meeting with a delegation of farmers and field labourers of the state, especially from the Malwa region on Sunday, said Jakhar.

"After destroying cotton, whitefly has started attacking the kinnow crop and if the state government did not take the required measures in time, kinnow growers can be in big trouble like cotton farmers," said Jakhar.

Jakhar said, “Basmati, which used to sell between `3,500 and `4,000 during the Congress- led UPA regime at the Centre, has now fallen to even less than `1,450 per quintal, the MSP fixed by the present NDA government for the normal paddy crop."

"While the Akali government is busy in issuing huge advertisements in the media regarding the announcement of `650crore compensation for cotton farmers, but the farmers who have really suffered losses have failed to receive even a single penny so far," Jakhar alleged.

"We are collecting all the documents as well as data to file a class action suit seeking to fix responsibility for the losses the farmers have suffered due to the whitefly attack on the cotton crop in Punjab and ensure adequate compensation to affected farmers," said leader of the opposition. "We will file the case in a week on the pattern of the one filed in the Union Carbide disaster case in Bhopal, in the Punjab and Haryana high court," claimed Jakhar.

A class action suit is a type of lawsuit in which a one or several people sue a party on behalf of a larger group of people, referred to as the class.

“The Bhopal disaster had led to the death of many after the leakage of gas from a factory, but here farmers have been left to die slowly because after the crop loss, farmers have been pushed towards committing suicides as they suffered a loss of `1,200 crore largely on inputs excluding the profit that was to be earned through sale of crop," he said.