Saurashtra farmers likely to join nationwide strike

RAJKOT: The supply of vegetables and milk is likely to be affected across Saurashtra as nearly 1 lakh farmers are expected to join the nationwide agitation by agriculturists to demand farm loan waiver and adequate prices for their produce.
However, farmers in Saurashtra are divided on this issue and that is why various district farmers’ associations have issued appeals.

A meeting of more than 180 farmers’ associations across the country was held at Vardha town of Maharashtra in April. It was decided that farmers won’t sell their produce for 10 days starting from June 1. The farmers’ associations of various districts of Saurashtra were called in Rajkot last week to decide on their course of action. However, their leaders were not confident that all farmers will join the stir unanimously because there are many big ones who are also engaged in various businesses other than farming.

President of Kisan Sangathan in Surendranagar district J K Patel said, “We expect the momentum to pick up after the agitation in Punjab, Haryana and Maharashtra, where farmers are expected to boycott selling of produce for next 10 days. We have many districts where farmers are already protesting against various government policies and they are expected to join.”

Farmers have also demanded that once government declares the minimum support price (MSP), selling at less than the MSP should be made a criminal offence.

President of Dwarka Khedut Hit Rakshak Samiti Pala Ambalia said, “We don’t want to force the farmers to join the nationwide stir. They can join voluntarily. We want government to change the method of calculating MSP. At present, the labour amount is not calculated in production cost.”