Takait warns Bihar CM of Delhi-like gharao in Patna if farmers’ demands not met

Rakesh Tikait said that farmers are not getting MSP of their products due to mass corruption and monopoly of state agencies and demanded enforcement of Mandi system to provide the farmers good marketing opportunities.

BHABUA: Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait on Sunday warned chief minister Nitish Kumar of a Delhi-like gherao in the state capital if demands of farmers on land compensation is not met.

BKU leader Rakesh Tikait. (PTI)

Addressing a gathering of thousands of farmers from Kaimur, Rohtas and Buxar in Bihar’s Bhabua district against abolishment of Mandi system and land acquisition law, Tikait said,” I will write a letter to chief minister Nitish Kumar asking him to accept the farmer’s genuine demands. Otherwise, we will gherao state capital Patna with thousands of tractors and lakhs of farmers like we did in Delhi to bow the government down on its knees”.

The BKU leader said that the central government is fuelling a Khalistan movement in Punjab by declaring the farmers as extremists and suppressing their movement seeking profitable farming, market price of their produce and acquired lands. Such tactics were adopted during farmers’ movement in Delhi and presently being adopted against farmers in Kashmir and Sukma in Chhattisgarh.

He also called for another meeting of farmers at Buxar on February 27 and 28 respectively.

Lashing out at the CM, former agriculture mister and RJD MLA Sudhakar Singh said that Nitish Kumar was a modified version of prime minister Narendra Modi in anti-farmer policies and his government is adamant to swallow farmers. “He has forced the farmers of Bihar to work as laborers in other states by abolishing the Mandi system and snatching their lands at throw away prices,” he said.