More than 50,000 farmers in West Bengal will start marching to Kolkata on November 28. The march will kick start from Singur and reach the capital city on November 29. Organised by the All-India Agricultural Workers’ Union (AIAWU) and the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), this march is organised in tandem with the farmer’s march moving towards Delhi under the banner ‘Dilli Chalo!’.
The list of demands presented by the farmers and the unions include:
- Initiatives to set up industries on those lands which were acquired by the State Government for industrialisation including Singur
- Work for all
- Stopping discrimination among Singur farmers, peasant and bargadars while providing Government welfare schemes
- Implementation of the recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission. The State and Central government will have to buy crop at a rate of one and a half times the cost of production
- All agricultural debt waivers
- Ensuring 200 days of work and Rs 350/day wage in MNREGA welfare scheme
- Ensuring minimum pension of Rs 6000/month for poor people above the age of 60
- Strict action against all corrupt officials in state and centre
According to CPI(M) member and AIAWU State Secretary Amiya Patra, “Chief Minister (Mamata Banerjee) has had time to deliver. But she couldn’t. We want to unmask her true colour. This government neither been able to return the land to farmers nor could set up industry. CM has visited foreign in search of investment several times but couldn’t able to find any investment.”
Patra also added that, “Why is it that in the last four years, 57 thousand acres of farmland have been turned into wastelands in West Bengal? Instead of a non-fertile land of Raghunathpur Purulia, why the 100 acres fertile land of Haringhata, Nadia have been handed over to Flipkart? In a time when public money is being wasted in so called government-sponsored utsav why the government did not pay the crop insurance premium for the kisans? The successive state and central governments have been coming hammer and tongs against the kisans. This cannot be tolerated.”
Also read: Agrarian Distress: Farmers Plan March To Delhi Next Month