Samyukt Kisan Morcha to hold protests across Haryana on July 17

Tribune News Service

Ravinder Saini

Rohtak, July 7

The issue of the non-disbursement of compensation to the insured farmers for their crop losses even after a long time has gained momentum, with the Haryana body of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) deciding to hold a protest demonstration at the sub-divisional level across the state on July 17 to exert pressure on the government for ensuring compensation to the affected farmers at the earliest.

Payment of thousands of crores pending

Insurance claims for crop losses to the tune of thousands of crores are pending across the state as private insurance companies are not accepting the registration of crops. Around 17,000 farmers alone from Mahendragarh district have been making rounds of government offices for the past several months to get relief. Inderjit Singh, Senior Vice-president, All India Kisan Sabha

The decision was taken at a state-level meeting of leaders of various farm outfits under the aegis of the SKM held in Rohtak today. The leaders also chalked out programmes for the coming days to raise their demands, including the minimum support price (MSP) for all crops, a policy to ensure freedom from debt for farmers etc. The meeting also resolved to organise a state-level convention of all constituents of the SKM in Rohtak on July 30 to decide their future course of action.

“Insurance claims for crop losses to the tune of thousands of crores are pending across the state as private insurance companies are not accepting the registration of crops. Around 17,000 farmers alone from Mahendragarh district have been making rounds of government offices for the past several months to get compensation for the crop losses under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Beema Yojana. Similar is the situation in other districts too,” said Inderjit Singh, senior vice-president, All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS).

Singh said it was an irony that distressed farmers were struggling for their legal rights to get compensation despite paying hefty premiums to get insurance cover for their crops, while the state government was shielding the defaulting companies rather than helping the suffering farmers. This issue was prominently discussed at the meeting and leaders of all SKM constituents favoured carrying out a decisive campaign until every farmer got compensation, he added.

He maintained that the meeting also decided to observe August 9 as “Boycott corporate - save agriculture” in association with major trade unions and August 15 as “Save democracy day” on August 15 in the wake of severe attacks on the freedom of expression and civil liberties of citizens under the “authoritarian agenda”.

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