Farmers Movement Archive

Akhilesh announces ₹25 lakh aid for kin of farmers who died during stir

Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday announced financial aid of ₹25 lakh to every family of those farmers who lost their lives in the agitation against the three new agriculture reform laws in the past one year.The aid of ₹25 lakh would be given soon after formation of an SP government in Uttar Pradesh, a party spokesman said.“SP chief Akhilesh Yadav has promised to give a sum of ₹25 lakh as Kisan Shahadat Samman Rashi to the family of every farmer who died in the agitation against the three farm laws,” said SP spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary in a press statement issued here.Chaudhary said former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav has always remained sensitive towards the issues of farmers. He said the Akhilesh Yadav-led SP government (2012-17) had implemented a number of welfare schemes for farmers.He also said policies about remunerative prices, cheaper power to farmers, free irrigation and availability of fertilisers to farmers were the result of the policies of the SP government.He said under Akhilesh Yadav’s leadership, the SP was always with the farmers. The SP strongly opposed the three farm laws and farmers have been framed in different cases by the BJP government, Chaudhary said. He said a large number of farmers, too, went to jail during the period.Uttar Pradesh government spokesman and senior minister Sidharth Nath Singh has meanwhile reacted sharply to the SP chief’s move to give aid as his “fake” concern for the farmers. Singh said the farmers understood this was another gimmick of the SP ahead of the 2022 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

Hindustan Times

25-11-2021

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