The Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) would launch an agitation if the crushing season of sugarcane does not start on time this session.
The BKU chief Naresh Tikait has announced that the farmers would stuff the collectorates in western UP with sugarcanes if the sugar mills do not start crushing from October 25 and will take the agitation further if their demands are not met by the government.
At a panchayat held in Bhaurakalan village of district Muzaffarnagar on Sunday, BKU leaders, led by Tikait, warned the sugar mills to either start sugarcane crushing season from October 25 or be ready to face a massive agitation. They said buggies and trollies laden with sugarcanes will move towards the district magistrate’s office and farmers would dump their sugarcanes in the collectorate.
“If our demands would not be considered by the government then we would intensify the agitation with roadblocks, chakka jam, rail roko etc.,” said Tikait.
The BKU had demanded from the government that it declares the rates of sugarcane before the sugar mills start operating, reduce electricity bills of the farmers, implement suggestions of Swaminathan Committee, allow 10-year-old vehicles to be used for agricultural purposes etc. After the success of Kisan Kranti Yatra, which ended on October 2, the BKU is further flexing its muscles. Now, its leadership wants to strongly raise the issues of sugarcane farmers.
Chandrapal Fauji, a close aide of BKU founder Late Chaudhary Mahendra Singh Tikait and western UP President of the Union, has declared that the farmers would wait for 10 days and if their demands are not met, the entry of BJP leaders and workers would be banned in their villages.
Fauji also said that so far the government has not taken any steps to accept the demands of farmers to which it had agreed during the meeting with Home Minister Rajnath Singh on the last day of Kisan Kranti Yatra.