Gandhinagar, 15 December 2011

Thousands of farmers from all over Gujarat today gathered in a public meeting at Gandhinagar under the banner of Bharatiya Kisan Sangh to discuss various farmers related issues. Various speakers talked about the issues related to farmers such as insufficient prices of agriculture produce, growing prices of seeds, problems in supply of fertilizer, advent of multinational companies in the area of agriculture in India among others.

Memorandum to Modi

A list of demands in a memorandum to the Chief Minister included electricity connection to farmers in the ‘dark zone’, along with support for drip irrigation system. The demands included new electricity connection to farmers within six months of application, power supply for eight hours during the day, all pending applications be disposed off within a year. The BKS has also demanded an increase in compensation amount for accidental death of farmers from Rs one lakh to Rs five lakh, and farm loan at the rate of one per cent per annum. VAT exemption in fuel, medicine and farm equipments, timely maintenance of irrigation canals, corrections in computerised land records and other land documents, are also some of the demands made by the BKS. In the memorandum given to Modi, they also listed over 30 demands that need to be addressed at the state and national level.