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Teaching farmers what to ask of campaigning politicians
Experts from various fields have come together in Uttar Pradesh and launched an awareness drive for farmers so that they can question the politicians seeking their votes ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
Experts from various fields have come together in Uttar Pradesh and launched an awareness drive for farmers so that they can question the politicians seeking their votes ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
Under the banner of the Kisan Jagriti Manch (KJM) that works in co-ordination with the National Alliance for Framers' Association (NAFA), professionals from different fields have joined hands for the drive.
"The main objective of our drive is to enable farmers to ask questions from politicians about issues related to agriculture," Sudhir Kumar, a professor in Lucknow University associated with KJM told IANS on Tuesday.
"We are making farmers aware about issues related to irrigation, crop insurance, minimum support price and others so that they can directly question the politicians on such topics and cast their precious votes judiciously," he said.
As part of the drive that started on Monday, members of KJM are presently camping in Baghpat district, 350 km from Lucknow.
"We have plans to cover the rural areas of western Uttar Pradesh first and later we will carry the drive in others parts of the state," said Kumar.
Significantly, over 450,000 farmers have committed suicide in the past decade across the country because of crop failure and loans.
"We want to unite the farmers so that they can seek explanation from politicians who tend to raise sentimental issues, sidelining the real ones ahead of the polls," he said.
