Elephants kill 2 in MP
Three wild elephants trampled two men to death and injured another person seriously near the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve (BTR) in Umaria district of Madhya Pradesh on Saturday.
Madhya Pradesh Congress Chief Jitu Patwari announced on Friday that the party will launch a ‘Kisan Nyay Yatra’ and gherao the offices of Collectors in all 55 districts of the state on 20 September to demand a hike in the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for farmers.
Addressing a press conference at the MP Congress headquarters here, Patwari accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former MP Chief Minister, now Union Agriculture Minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, of failing to deliver on their promises to double farmers’ income, claiming that the financial condition farmers has worsened.
“We demand that the state government should procure soybean from farmers at Rs 6,000 per quintal, wheat at Rs 2,700 per quintal, and paddy at Rs 3,100 per quintal,” Patwari said, adding that the farmers were not receiving fair prices for their produce.
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“We will gherao the offices of Collectors in all 55 districts of MP at noon on 20 September as part of the Congress’ Kisan Nyay Yatra,” Patwari stated.
He accused the BJP of reneging on its pre-election promises made in the 2023 MP assembly elections manifesto, which had pledged MSPs of Rs 2,700 per quintal for wheat and Rs 3,100 per quintal for paddy. “But the saffron party has forgotten its promises to the farmers,” Patwari asserted.
“Our leader Rahul Gandhi wants a legal guarantee for MSP,” Patwari said.
Patwari pointed out that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, speaking at a rally in Bareli, UP, in February 2016, had promised to double the income of farmers in India by 2022.
“However, the National Statistical Office’s report reveals that the average daily income of farmers is just Rs 27, while the average debt per farmer stands at Rs 74,000,” Patwari said.
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