Convention to be held on farmer suicides
Revival of Lift Irrigation Corporation demanded
BHUBANESWAR: The three major Left parties of the State on Friday came down heavily on the Naveen Patnaik Government and blamed it for the spate in farmers’ suicides in the State.
The three parties – Communist Party of India(Marxist), Communist Party of India, and Forward Bloc – also criticised the State government for going soft on those involved in the multi-crore illegal mining scam.
They announced that a State level convention will be held in the city on November 24 on the issues of farmer suicides, mining scam, drought and price rise.
Among the senior leaders who were scheduled to address the rally include CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan and Forward Bloc leader and West Bengal Minister Naren Dey. The leaders of the three parties said that the measures that the State government had announced after the farmers started committing suicide after suffering crop loss due to a bad monsoon and pest attack were not sufficient help the farmers.
The leaders who addressed the presspersons were CPI State Committee Secretary Dibakar Nayak, CPI(M) State Committee Member Santosh Das, and State Secretary of Forward Bloc Santosh Mitra.
They demanded that the State government immediately revive the Lift Irrigation Corporation that had been closed several years ago to increase the irrigation cover. About 12,000 of the total 15,000 lift irrigation points that existed in the State wee lying defunct, they informed.
The leaders also criticised the announcement of the State government that a large number of ponds would be established on agricultural land to help farmers irrigate their crops. “How will the scheme help when there was little rain,” they queried.
They further blamed the government for the decline in agricultural productivity in the State. The agricultural production had decreased with the government allowing the plunder of the mineral resources in the name of industrialisation, they said.
Courtesy : The Hindu
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