MP farmer stir leaves 5 dead

New Delhi, June 6

Amid claims by the BJP-led Centre of initiating measures to boost agriculture and alleviate farmers’ woes, violent protests today broke out in Madhya Pradesh over rising farm debt due to the fall in prices of vegetables and foodgrain such as pulses after a bumper crop.

Five persons reportedly died and several others were injured after a farmer agitation in Mandsaur district turned violent. While the police claimed they did not fire at the farmers, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan ordered a judicial probe and announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the kin of the deceased and Rs 1 lakh to the injured. A curfew was imposed in the affected area.

Some witnesses alleged the victims suffered bullet wounds, but authorities denied police firing on protesters.

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Leader of Opposition in the MP Assembly Ajay Singh demanded Chouhan’s resignation while senior Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia accused the BJP of dealing with the agitation with “bullets instead of talks”. Chouhan said his government was trying to address demands, including setting up a price stabilisation fund of Rs 1,000 crore to purchase the produce at the MSP. 

Despite a bumper crop, farmers are demanding waiver of all farm loans, MSP at 50 per cent over production cost, a pension scheme for farmers 60 years and above, interest-free credit, higher prices for milk and fully-subsidised micro-irrigation equipment. In Maharashtra, despite an assurance from CM Devendra Fadnavis of a debt waiver by October, farmers continued with their agitation.

As others threaten to join the bandwagon of demand for a loan waiver, on the lines of the one (Rs 36,359-crore waiver) given by the UP dispensation, government functionaries reiterate that any such decision can only be effected by state governments. But perceptions such incidents are building may be a cause for concern for the ‘pro-farmer’ Narendra Modi government. — TNS