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Rs 1-cr relief for kin of slain MP farmers

Last Updated 07 June 2017, 19:23 IST

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has announced a compensation of Rs 1 crore each for the next of kin of five farmers who were killed during “police firing” in Mandsaur district.

The BJP government, apparently rattled by the deaths of farmers on Tuesday, has also promised government jobs to family members of the deceased.

Speaking to a news channel late on Tuesday night, Chouhan also said that financial help of Rs 5 lakh each would be given to the six people who were injured in the violent protests that took place in Mandsaur district.
However, a former leader of BJP’s Kisan Morcha and Patidar community leader, Neemuch-based Prem Patidar, said the compensation of Rs 1 crore was an eyewash.

“We have lost young people of our community in firing and we are ready to pay Rs 2 crore each for punishing the guilty policemen,” he said.

State officials said that Rs 1 crore is an unprecedented amount of compensation. But it didn’t seem to have mollified the farmers, with widespread violence being reported from western Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday where the agitation has been going on since June 1.

“With the firing incident, Chouhan’s so-called image as ‘kisan-putra’ (farmer’s son) has taken a severe knocking. I had been saying that massive corruption plagues the farm sector under his rule. Now my stand is vindicated,” Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Sangh’s national president Shivkumar Sharma said.

“There is no electricity in rural areas, so farmers are using diesel-run pumps to irrigate fields. They are forced to buy fertilisers in black market,” claimed Sharma, a former leader of RSS-affiliated Bhartiya Kisan Sangh.

“Due to these factors, cost of production for farmers has skyrocketed. Now farmers are protesting for better prices for their produce,” he added.
PTI

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(Published 07 June 2017, 19:23 IST)

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