Martyrdom Day on 3rd Anniversary of Mandsaur Firing Observed
THE All India Kisan Mahasabha organized programs to observe the 3rd anniversary of the martyrdom of protesting farmers killed on 6 June 2017 in the Mandsuar firing.
In Bihar, at the Patna District office in Naubatpur, the martyred farmers were remembered with floral tributes by Kisan Mahasabha office bearers. Tributes were also paid in other states and Demand Day was observed.
Speaking on the occasion, AIKM leader Kripa Narayan Singh said that 12 of the 14 Kharif crops for which the government has announced increase in Minimum Support Price are crops with the least rate of increase in price till date. In other words, this is not an increase in purchase price in accordance with crop input costs; on the contrary, it is actually a decrease in MSP. The government should stop cheating farmers and pay a purchase price of 1 ½ times of input costs as per C2+50 formula by the Swaminathan Commission recommendations. He further said that the government has fixed the average input costs for paddy at Rs 1245 per quintal, whereas the same for last year was shown as Rs 1619 per quintal. The Punjab Agriculture Ministry showed the average input cost for paddy last year as Rs 2740 per quintal. The Kerala and Chhattisgarh governments are purchasing paddy at Rs 2690 and Rs 2500 per quintal respectively. Now after one year when the expenses have gone up, Modi Gov is declaring a MSP of Rs 1668. This is plain cheating and injustice towards the farmers.
A memorandum addressed to the Prime Minister was also submitted to the officials with the following demands:
- Minimum support price of 1 ½ times crop input expenses as per Swaminathan Commission recommendations.
- Rs 500 bonus per quintal to farmers should be guaranteed by the Bihar government in view of the distress caused by the Lockdown.
- Implement Swaminathan Commission recommendations in full.
The 3rd anniversary of the Mandsaur firing was observed with demands for justice for farmers and pointing out that the 20 lakh crore package announced by the Prime Minister had nothing for farmers. Programs to honor the memory of the martyred farmers and to put forward the farmers’ demands were held in many Districts in Bihar including Patna, Nalanda, Purnea, Jehanabad and Bhojpur.
