Tikait flays centre, state govts for anti-farmer policies

Hardwar, June 17 (UNI) Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Chaudhary Mahendra Singh Tikait has flayed the centre and the state governments for pursuing ''anti-farmer policies.'' Addressing the three-day annual Kisan panchayat which began at Rori Belwala grounds here yesterday, the Kisan leader said ''anti-farmer governments were in power both at the centre and in the states''. He said in many parts of the country the farmers were reeling under unbearable burden of debt and were committing suicide.

''The farmers are not getting remunerative prices of their products, they are faced with shortage of electricity and water while the prices of agricultural products were rising,'' he charged.

Mr Tikait said the hike in the prices of petrol and diesel would further worsen the situation. He said Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav was staging demonstrations in Delhi on the issue, but he was not waiving the state taxes on petrol and diesel.

He also put the N D Tiwari led Uttaranchal government in the dock for confiscating the land of the farmers in Udham Singh Nagar district.

He appealed to the farmers to unite and wage a struggle for the redressal of their problems all over the country.

He alleged that exclusion of Hardwar and Udham Singh Nagar districts from Uttaranchal was part of the BKU's agenda.

''We shall chalk out a plan of action to restore these districts to the parent state of UP,'' he said.

UNI XC PR DS1243