Distressed farmers from across the country march to Delhi with their demands 

A farmer during the march wearing a cap that reads: “I’m a farmer, not a beggar.” (Photo: Twitter/@RakshaRamaiah)

New Delhi: Thousands of farmers from all over the country gathered at New Delhi’s Ramleela Maidan and marched to the Parliament Street to voice their demands. The two-day “Kisan Mukti March” has witnessed massive gathering of farmers demanding debt relief, compensation for crop damage, diesel hike and no access to land.

Farmers and sons of farmers came from villages across the country. Agricultural laborers and farmers from Bihar’s Muzaffarpur, Gujarat’s Dahod, Maharashtra’s Nandurbar and Raigad, Uttar Pradesh’s Amroha and Aligarh and elsewhere joined the march to put forward their demands before government.

The march was organized by the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee.

While narrating the difficulties they face, the farmers said that they are here to request government to consider compensation for crops ruined because of lack of rain, better prices for crops and action against capture of their land by local strongmen.

Several opposition party leaders had also joined the march at Jantar Mantar. Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, Samajwadi Party senior leader Dharmendra Yadav, CPM leader Sitaram Yechury, CPI leader S Sudhakar Reddy, AAP MP Sanjay Singh and former chief minister of Jammu & Kashmir Farooq Abdullah have supported the farmers’ march.

Some broad demands from farmers are as follows,

• To make minimum support price for crops a legal requirement. This will force traders to pay farmers minimum declared price for the crop.
• Procurement of all the crops by the Centre and state governments to increase diversification instead of particular crops.
• One-time loan waiver to all farmers for immediate credit relief.
• Kisan credit cards for all the people engaged in agriculture including tenant farmers, agricultural workers and women farmers.

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