By Abdul Bari Masoud
New Delhi: All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), an umbrella body of 193 farmer organizations, Tuesday demanded that a special Parliament session should be convened to discuss the deepening agrarian crisis and to pass the two private bills regarding the protection of farmer’s interest, submitted recently in both Houses. Demanding a onetime loan-waiver of 12 lakh corers rupees, the leaders of various farmer organizations alleged that during the present regime, farmers’ distress has been increased manifold and suicide rate of farmers has been doubled.
Addressing a press conference here, leaders of AIKSCC attacked the Modi government saying it failed to keep the promises made to farmers and only “appeasing” corporate houses by waiving their 24 lakh crores bad loans.
Coordinator V M Singh said a delegation of the AIKSCC called on the President Ramnath Kovind yesterday and requesting him to convene a special Parliament session on farmers. The parliament session is called at midnight to fulfill the wish of Prime Minister Modi, then why can’t it be convened for the farmers’ problem, he said.
“If a special midnight session can be organized for Goods and Services Tax (GST), why not a session to address the agrarian crisis in India?”
The private bill “The Farmers’ Right to Freedom from Indebtedness Bill, 2018 seeks an immediate one-time loan waiver, including private loans and loans of landless farmers and agricultural labourers, in addition to bringing about systemic reforms to include farmers in the institutional credit fold.
Another bill “The Farmers’ Right to Guaranteed Remunerative Minimum Support Prices for Agricultural Commodities Bill, 2018 seeks to set up accurate and comprehensive cost-of-production estimates, regulate and reduce the cost of inputs, notify remunerative prices with a profit margin of at least 50 percent over cost of production, and set up accountable mechanisms that will actualize such prices for all farmers in reality, they said.
Hanan Mollah said 21 political parties supported the bills and these can be passed in Rajya Sabha as these Bills were adopted at a meet organized in November last year, in which tens of thousands of farmers from all over the country had participated.
In the past 15 years, over 3.5 lakh farmers have committed suicide in the country and the suicide rate has gone up by 50 percent over the past four years, he added.
They also announced the calendar of protest and agitation. ON June 6, AIKSCC would observe as “martyred day” in memory of killing of six farmers by the Madhya Pradesh Police in Mandsur district. It would also organize a torch march on June 4, in Bhopal to highlight the plight of farmers. CPI leader Atul Kumar Anjan, Dr. Anilam, Prof Yogendra Yadav, Vivek Saha and others also spoke on the occasion.