Tikait backs ex-minister’s demand to revive mandis in Bihar, threatens stir

Tikait’s call is in line with the demand made by former agriculture minister Sudhakar Singh, who has been seeking re-establishment of the mandi system and ensuring minimum support price to farmers for their produce .

Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait has threatened a farmers’ agitation in Bihar if the Nitish Kumar government does not take steps to restore mandis (market yards regulated by the government) in the state, an aide of the farmers’ leader said.

BKU spokesperson Rakesh Tikait. (ANI)

Tikait’s call is in line with the demand made by former agriculture minister Sudhakar Singh, who has been seeking re-establishment of the mandi system and ensuring minimum support price to farmers for their produce .

In his letter to chief minister Nitish Kumar, which has been seen by HT, Tikait has written that due to closure of mandis in the state, farmers do not have a platform to sell their produce for the last 15-16 years. “They don’t get effective price and end up selling their produce to the brokers at throwaway prices. This has worsened the condition of farmers, who are not left with enough money to even buy seeds or run their families. Absence of mandis has made them work as labourers in other states. The education of farmers’ children is also suffering due to their poor financial condition,” the letter, sent last week, says.

Requesting the CM to restart the mandis so that the farmers could get minimum support price, Tikait has said farmers would be forced to start a big agitation if the demand was not met.

Responding to the letter, Singh, who quit as minister barely a month after taking charge in August, said Tikait’s letter was a vindication of his demand.

“I was never there to be a minister, but to champion the cause of farmers. Being a minister and not being able to do anything for farmers was not acceptable. In the Nitish Kumar cabinet, ministers may be happy working as peon or rubber stamp, as I had said earlier, but I cannot do that. Perhaps, that is why I had to resign,” he told HT.

Singh, who is from RJD, the largest constituent in the ruling alliance in Bihar, said that by raising the issue, he was not violating the directive of his party’s national president Lalu Prasad that “nobody should speak on matters related to policy decisions and only deputy CM Tejashwi Prasad Yadav is authorised to speak on such issues.”

“What I am saying is nothing new. I have been raising the issues of mandi and MSP since long before I became a minister. When I became a minister, I had also issued an order to my department secretary to prepare a proposal for reviving the Bihar state Agriculture Production and Marketing Committee on September 14, 2022. If a minister’s concerns mean nothing to his department secretary, there was no point continuing,” Singh, who is the son of state RJD president Jagdanand Singh, said.

He said the RJD manifesto also has the points he has been raising and they were reiterated in the economic proposal issued at the recently held national executive in Delhi. “It clearly says the MSP will be fixed taking into consideration the input costs and there will be direct procurement at the local level from the farmers. It also talks about writing off agriculture loan and land rent, besides setting up a farmers’ commission. The economic proposal also underlined that agriculture schemes like e-Mandi, crop insurance and water to every farm are not visible on the ground,” he said.

Agriculture minister Kumar Sarvajeet, when contacted for a response, said that the letter from Tikait was to the chief minister. “Only the CM can reply on the issue. I don’t know what he has written,” he said.