Farmers Movement Archive

Political parties must tell what they will do for farmers: BKU leader on UP polls

Addressing his first panchayat at Sisauli village of Muzaffarnagar district ever since the farmers’ stir ended, Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) national spokesperson Rakesh Tikait alleged that through the proposed privatisation of banks efforts were being made to grab farmers’ land by the corporate sector.“Farming is being made a deal of loss so that the corporate sector could snatch land of farmers and so the farmers should remain wary of it,” Tikait said at the panchayat held at Kisan Bhawan on Friday. Attacking the government, he said, “The farmers are not dishonest but ‘the pen which decides the prices of their crops in Delhi is dishonest’. However, now young farmers have woken up.”He also claimed that the rate of electricity in the state was higher than that of neighbouring Haryana. Tikait further said the issues of farmers would be raised before the state governments across the country. On the upcoming assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, the BKU leader demanded that political parties should clearly state in their manifestos as to what they intended to do for farmers.The BKU leader demanded that the alleged one-sided action in police stations must stop immediately or else another agitation would be launched. The farmers should be provided facilities from the income generated through “Mandis”, he said and urged the government to clear the dues of cane farmers. BKU president Naresh Tikait said as the farmers’ stir had ended, leaders of political parties could visit the villages in the region.

Hindustan Times

18-12-2021

Lucknow