PM Modi discusses development issues at NDA CMs’ Council meeting in Chandigarh
Twenty chief ministers of the NDA and their deputies engaged in the half-day conclave, the first of its kind after many years.
The farmers union, Bharatiya Kisan Union BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) has demanded that a new agriculture policy based on the demands made by them should be in place by January 21 in Punjab. If that does not happen, it will begin a five-day series of sit-ins at the offices of all the deputy commissioners in the state from January 22 to 26.
From January 26, the protest will reach Chandigarh at the beginning of February. This decision was taken after an organisational meeting took place in Bathinda on Monday regarding farmers’ demands. Farmer unionist Joginder Singh Ugrahan declared: “Punjab has long waited for a pro-peasant agriculture policy, but it was always designed to protect the corporate interests.”
“All that we want is farmer friendly loans so that these can be paid back with ease, less interest rates in time and so that there is a loan waiver with a cap on private money lending.” He also said that there should be irrigation facilities to each farmland and to ensure that there is no depletion of groundwater, diversification should begin rather than depend only on water-guzzling paddy crops.
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He also said that there should be adequate compensation in case of crop disaster and unemployment benefits for farmers sitting idle should be in place. Ugrahan also sought a ban on the sale of spurious fertilisers and seeds and taxes on corporate houses and moneylenders.
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