Farmers Movement Archive

Govt wants to ruin us, say farmers in Haryana

JIND/KARNAL: Farmers in Jind expressed their anger against the introduction of an ordinance to monitor the air quality, which will attract a jail provision of up to five years or fine Rs 1 crore. Surajmal Nain, a native of Khairanti village in Julana town of Jind district, said, “The present government wants to ruin the farmers. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government is taking anti farmers decisions consecutively.” According to him, even though farmers are not the only ones responsible for the air pollution, the government, which is afraid of take any action against the big giants of the market initiative, go after softer target like farmers. “There are other ways to control stubble burning cases, this move will destroy us,” he added. Dalbir Singh, a farmer and a native of Bibipur village in Jind, said “BJP government has decided to damage the farmers. The Britishers also used to enforce such laws aimed at destroying people. The centre should make alternative arrangements to deal with the stubble burning issue instead of imposing new law.” In Karnal, a day after the Centre has introduced a new law through an ordinance to deal with the problem of air pollution in Delhi-NCR, farmers leader termed the law as another setback for farmers who were already on the roads against the three farm laws. They will oppose this ordinance. Rattan Mann, state president of Bhartiya Kisan Union (tikait) said,” The Modi-led NDA government is bringing the anti-farmers laws one after another, instead of doubling their income. The government should ensure to make the stubble profitable for the farmers instead of imposing the anti-farmer laws”. “This law would create resentment among the farming community. We will oppose this ordinance and submit a memorandum against it. We demanded the government that all old FIRs registered against farmers for stubble burning should also be canceled, Mann added. He said farmers acknowledged the adverse effects of burning stubble but had no alternative in the absence of any financial assistance. The government should make efforts to deal with the air pollution menace by reducing vehicular emission.

The Times of India

2020-10-30

Chandigarh