Farmers Movement Archive

Bengal BJP rallies support for farm bills in districts

Kolkata: Bengal BJP office-bearers fanned out in districts in support of the three farm bills passed in Parliament on a day the opposition focused on the Hathras gang rape in Uttar Pradesh. The purpose, among other things, was to activate party ranks and mobilise supporters for the Nabanna Abhiyan call by Bengal Yuva Morcha set for October 8. The BJP’s North Kolkata organizational district took out a motorbike rally in support of farm bills, while party MP Arjun Singh led a rally in Asansol. BJP’s Bharati Ghosh participated in a rally at Sabang while party leaders in north Bengal took out a Krishi Suraksha rally in Jalpaiguri’s Mainaguri. BJP chief J P Nadda and his predecessor Amit Shah asked the Bengal unit to throw its weight behind the Yuva Morcha rally. “The farm bills propose to do away with middlemen and allow farmers to go into a direct deal with traders over their produce. The Modi government’s initiative will help shorten the supply chain, with the price benefit going to growers,” said Singh. “Farmers have to pay 8.5% mandi tax in Punjab, and 6.5% in Haryana. In West Bengal, the tax has no limits, which is why farmers do not go to mandis set up by the Mamata Banerjee government. Trinamool workers, with the backing of the state administration, extort growers of potato and paddy,” he added. Singh spoke on the lines of Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh, who said the opposition — CPM, Trinamool and Congress — was mobilizing middlemen against farmers to deprive the latter of a higher price for their produce.

The Times of India

2020-10-03

Kolkata