Farmers body to launch stir against wild animal menace
With the wild animal menace forcing hundreds of farmers in the state to abandon traditional agriculture, the Himachal Kisan Sabha announced a statewide stir against what it called the government's "anti-farmer" policies on Monday. "Ever since the BJP led government assumed power at the centre its has only been issuing ordinances," the group's president, Kuldeep Singh Tanwar, and its secretary, Onkar Shad, said.
With the wild animal menace forcing hundreds of farmers in the state to abandon traditional agriculture, the Himachal Kisan Sabha announced a statewide stir against what it called the government's "anti-farmer" policies on Monday. "Ever since the BJP led government assumed power at the centre its has only been issuing ordinances," the group's president, Kuldeep Singh Tanwar, and its secretary, Onkar Shad, said.
They alleged the Modi government had promulgated an ordinance on the Land Acquisition Bill to benefit the big industrial house in the state. "The ordinance on the Land Acquisition Bill will make it easy for industrialists to acquire land owned by farmers", said Tanwar.
"Though the bill was introduced during the UPA regime it did not fully favour famers but at least it provided minimum security to them. The NDA government has so far failed to protect their interests," said Shadh.
The left oriented farmers body also flayed Prime Minister Narender Modi for "failing to fulfill the promise" of increasing import duty on apples. "It is said Himachal Pradesh's representative in Parliament too did not muster enough courage to remind Modi about his promise. The Kisan sabha will launch a statewide agitation from February 13 to highlight the anti-farmer policies of the government. The decision to launch the stir was taken at its state level meeting," said Tanwar.
The farmers body expressed grave concern over the increasing the man animal conflict, besides flayed the government for not taking effective steps to curb the wild animal menace that has adversely impacted farming in eleven of the state's dozen districts. "The menace is steadily worsening in the tribal Kinnaur district," Tanwar added.