Parties should not take Farmers for Granted: Kishore Tiwari-TIMES OF INDIA
TNN | Mar 17, 2019, 04.21 AM IST
Nagpur: Kishore Tiwari, farm activist and chairman of Vasantrao Naik Sheti Swavalamban Mission, has warned all political parties not to take farmers for granted in the coming Lok Sabha elections.
The dryland farmer of Vidarbha and Marathwada would vote only for that party which comes out with a clear agenda on agrarian issues, he said.
Tiwari, who is engaged in drawing attention of the governments for the last three decades to farmers’ woes, said there is a perception that the BJP governments at the Centre and the state were more focused on urban-oriented Smart Cities, bullet train and Metro rail projects and not bothered about the unending farm crisis that forces thousands of farmers to commit suicide every year.
Tiwari acknowledged Modi government’s launching of Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi through which small farmers with less than 2-hectare holding would get Rs6,000 a year, of which first instalment of Rs2,000 has already been transferred as a relief.
But he said it was time to address core issues like granting special aid to those taking to non-chemical organic farming and helping cause of environment. There is a need to shift to an easy five-year farm credit cycle granting 70% of prevailing price of land holding, he said.
“Only a party coming out with out-of-the-box solutions and permanent remedies for the crisis on farm front would get the vote. No farmer of Vidarbha and Marathwada is likely to vote blindly without ensuring benefits accruing to him from the elections,” said Tiwari.
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