Kisan Sabha Dharna in Arwal

A one-day dharna was held at the Arwal block office on 20 January to demand bonus for and paddy purchase from farmers, especially sharecroppers. Addressing the dharna, Kisan Mahasabha State Secretary and Party MLA from Tarari, Com. Sudama Prasad said that the Nitish government has failed on all fronts. This government has betrayed the farmers. Expenses for paddy and other kharif crop production have gone up considerably due to 44% less than average rainfall in the State; production in any district has been limited to between 25% and 50%, yet the State government refuses to pay the Rs 500 per quintal bonus apart from the support price. The Central and State governments which made policies that 33% or more crop loss would entitle compensation is now refusing compensation for 50% to 75% crop loss. Almost all the government hand pumps in the State are closed; the Durgawati reservoir and Hamidnagar irrigation project have not been started; construction has not even begun in the Indrapuri reservoir (Kadvan dam). The government is showing no interest in electrification of farmers’ private hand pumps and providing them free electricity for irrigation. Even the government’s announcement of diesel subsidy remains confined to the newspapers only.

No policy has been made for the development of sharecroppers and pattadars who are farming on the lands from where the distressed farmers have left. It is only after the series of agitations by CPI (ML) and Kisan Mahasabha that the Central and State Farmers’ Commissions have given sharecroppers and pattadars the status of farmer, and yet these sharecroppers who farm more than 70% of agricultural lands are given no facilities by the government. As in the previous years, this year also the Bihar government has placed stringent conditions for purchase of paddy from small and medium farmers and sharecroppers in December-January which is their peak time of need; the farmers will become forced to sell their paddy to traders and middlemen and as before, the conditions for purchase will then be relaxed and the paddy will be purchased from these traders and middlemen.

The commission constituted by the Centre to assess outlay expenses had fixed the average outlay for paddy production as Rs 1,600 per quintal. The government had promised to pay 1 ½ times the outlay expense as support price, but it has fixed the support price as Rs 1,410 per quintal, which is much less even than the outlay expense fixed by the government commission; the government has also decided to cut State investment and grants in agriculture and to open the doors national and foreign capital investment which will only increase agrarian woes. If sharecroppers and farmers are thus neglected, the development of Bihar remains questionable.

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