Delegation of All India Kishan Sangharsh Samannway Samitee met Odisha CM, submitted memorandum on Crop burning and farmers suicide issue

Bhubaneswar: Crop burning or suicide are not the solution of agricultural crisis and farmers of across the state should come forward and fight for their cause ; this is the opinion of All India Kishan Sangharsh Coordination Committee(AIKSCC). The AIKSCC,  Odisha chapter  declared it by a press release after returning from Baragarh district on the issue of draught,  crop loss, crop burning and suicide of farmers and described the situation as the reflection of anti-farm and anti-farmer polices taken by the state and central government. A fact finding team of AIKSCC, Odisha chapter visited the Baragarh and Bhatli block area on 4th November, 2017 and saw the plights of farmers from the bottom after the total failure of pesticide control system due to ‘CHAKADA’ insect in thousands acres of paddy field. They also visited the family members of Brundaban Sahu, who lost his life by suicide after the crop lost. After the discussion with the farmers about their problems and grievances the team members also met the District Collector and apprised him about the grim situation faced by the farmers and submitted him a memorandum with 5 point demands on 4th November and also to Chief Minister of Odisha on 6th November .They appealed to the farmers and general public to not to take the steps like suicide and crop fire for their crop loss and call for unity among the farmers to raise their issues through democratic struggle. The demands raised by them are as follows:1. Give 20 lakhs Compensation to all farmers who lost their life due to suicide and also give 10 dismal home stead land patta  to the homeless persons like deceased Brundaban Sahu.   2. Give Rs. 20,000/- to the farmers as minimum compensation for crop lost for per acre to the real farmers(land owner/share cropper).3. To take major awareness steps against farmers suicide and crop fire.4. Take appropriate steps to free all farmers from debt and give all institutional loans without interest. Exempt all taxes of farmers  like land tax, irrigation tax and education fees of all students for current year .5. Support all farmers of draught area for coming Ravi Crop with seeds, fertilizers and pest controls. Accountability should be  fixed with the district collectors for distress sate of agricultural produces.
The team members of All India Kishan Sangharsh Coordination Committee(AIKSCC) who associated with the fact findings are Mr. Khirod Singhdeo(AIKS), Mr. Suresh Panigrahi(OKS), Mr. Ashok Pradhan(AIKM), Mr. Jyotiranjan Mohapatra(AIAKS), Mr. Sankar Sahu(AIKKS), Mr. Basudev Das(AIKMKS), Mr. Narendra Mohanty(Chasi Mulia Surakshya o Sangram Parisad and Mr. Asish Kanungo(AIKS), Mr. Mahendra Parida(AIKM) later joined with the team members at the time to submission of memorandum to C.M.