CPI(ML) Bihar State Secretary Kunal said on 10 November 2017 that for the third time the Bihar government has brought a ‘Krishi Road Map’, but as in the previous two road maps, this one also offers no solution for the problems of the farmers. This road map will cheat the farmer just as the Modi government’s false promises did. 60% of farming in Bihar is done through sharecropping but once again the government maintains an obstinate silence on the rights of sharecroppers. The government talks big about a road map for farmers but does not even mention the recommendations given by its own Bandopadhyay Commission which had identified over 21 lakh acres of land to be distributed among the landless. No green revolution can be achieved in Bihar by ignoring the farm workers, sharecroppers and marginal foarmers.
Today the attack is not just on farm workers and marginal farmers; the grave agrarian crisis has seriously affected other sections of farmers also. We see farmers’ suicides in Bihar also. Farmers have to agitate every year for purchase of their paddy. Two to three years’ paddy backlog is lying unsold but the government is not purchasing it. Farmers are forced to sell their crop to middlemen for throwaway prices. Farmers who grow potato, parwal, maize and other food crops also face the same crisis and we are hearing tragic news of many farmers burning and destroying their own crops in despair. In this situation what change is the government offering in the lives of farmers? There is neither guarantee of crop purchase nor arrangements for a better market (mandi).
The CPI(ML) said that the government cannot fool the farmers in the name of this ‘Krishi Road Map’. Our demand is that the Bandopadhyay Commission recommendations should be implemented in its entirety; Ceiling, bhoodan and other lands of similar nature should be distributed among the landless; the government should give sharecroppers their lawful rights; they should be given crop loss compensation, diesel grant, and other facilities; rampant land acquisition should be stopped; lands which have become infertile due to floods should be studied and rejuvenated; the government should implement the Swaminathan Commission recommendations; all types farmers’ loans should be waived; the Son River canal system as well as all other canal systems, hand pumps and irrigation sources should be repaired and maintained; farmers should be given free electricity for agricultural purposes.
