BJS to launch statewide agitation for sugarcane producers

Jabalpur, May 8 (UNI) Bharatiya Jan Shakti (BJS) President Uma Bharti today said the agitation launched here against the plight of sugarcane producers in Madhya Pradesh will acquire a statewide dimension on May 25.

''Madhya Pradesh has slid backward on the agriculture front as compared to the erstwhile Congress regime,'' Ms Bharti, who was here to take part in an indefinite hunger strike launched by BJS General Secretary Prahlad Patel on May 3, said.

The condition of farmers has become similar to those in Telangana, Vidarhbha and Karnataka due to the neglect of the state government.

She warned that the farmers would be forced to commit suicide if they remained poor.

She said inappropriate prices had forced peasants to burn sugarcane crops in Narsinghpur, Hoshangabad, Chhindwara and other districts where the cash crop was being cultivated.

She said the agitation would continue until the government provided compensation of Rs 25,000 per hectare.

The BJS would launch the agitation at district-level from tomorrow. After reviewing it, the third phase of statewide agitation would be launched on May 25.

Ms Bharti said she would herself take part in the third phase of agitation.

She said she had directed the officials to formulate a new sugarcane policy when she became the Chief Minister and asked them to consider making Narsinghpur a special zone for sugarcane.

She lamented that a policy had not been formed despite three years of the BJP rule.

UNI