With barely a week left for the Lok Sabha elections to be over, the farmers’ forum in Himachal Pradesh has come out with a charter of demands to draw the attention of the political parties.

Claiming apathy on the part of the BJP-led central government, the Sanyukt Kisan Manch (United Farmers Forum) has come out with a slogan: “Jawab de Kendra Sarkar, kyun nahi suni hamari pukar’ (the central government should answer why our pleas have not been heard).

The forum has questioned the sensitivity of the BJP towards the grievances of the fruit growers of the mountain state and accused the central government of failing to implement farmer and horticulturist-friendly policies in the last 10 years.

The Sanyukt Kisan Manch (SKM) is an umbrella organisation of 27 farmer groups.

While addressing media persons at Rampur in Shimla district on Sunday, the farmers’ forum highlighted various issues related to agriculture and horticulture.

“On May 2, our forum held a meeting in Shimla and decided that in the LS elections, we will support the political party that accedes to our six major demands,” said SKM’s Sanjay Chauhan, adding that now the forum will mobilise farmers to support the political party that assures to address the problems of the farmers.

SKM convener Harish Chauhan said, “The farmers have been repeatedly raising their problems but no substantial step has been taken to address the same.

“We need to save the livelihood of lakhs of families associated with it in the state. It is necessary to highlight the increasing crisis in agriculture, horticulture, and the problems farmers and horticulturists face.”

“We will embark on a door-to-door campaign, urging farmers to vote for the political party that helps to bail out the farmers from the looming crisis that horticulture is facing. We need to understand the power of our vote and use our intellect to save agriculture and horticulture. We will vote for the party that works in our favour,” he said.

Addressing a public meeting at Rohru on Saturday, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge promised that the INDIA bloc would change the export-import regime and assured to enhance import duties, he claimed.

“Our major demands include raising the import duty on apples to 100 per cent, loan waivers, augmenting subsidies for farmers on fertilisers, pesticides, fungicides, agricultural equipment and other input items and ending GST on all agricultural and horticultural input items and packaging materials,” the SKM convener said.

While the central government has granted loan waivers worth crores to big corporate houses in the last 10 years, farmers and horticulturalists have been demanding similar relief for long. However, their pleas have fallen on deaf ears as the government has failed to address their demands.

Other demands include MSP for all crops as recommended by the Swaminathan Commission, restoration of Budget cuts for the Market Intervention Scheme by central government, and ensuring prompt payment of dues to apple farmers.

They have also demanded to end corporate farming to safeguard the interests of farmers and horticulturists.

He said that even incumbent MP Suresh Kashyap failed to raise the issue of fruit growers before the central government.

Chauhan slammed BJP candidate Kangana Ranaut, who is in the fray from the Mandi parliamentary constituency, for her comments on farmers during the agitation.

“It is shameful on her part. Can farmers be bought for Rs 100 each to participate in the agitation? She is yet to apologise,” he remarked.