MP's Kisan Mahapanchayat a poll stunt: Cong

Bhopal, Feb 21 (UNI) Leader of the Opposition in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly Jamuna Devi today denounced yesterday's Kisan Mahapanchayat as an electoral stunt of the Bharatiya Janata Party regime.

''Several of the Mahapanchayat's announcements are old. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan himself made them on August 30, 2008 during a Kisan Panchayat at his residence. Force is being used for making farmers pay power bills and peasants are being jailed. This state's ryots are being charged more for power than counterparts in Punjab, Gujarat, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh,'' she alleged in a statement here.

Even as Madhya Pradesh faces an election year, Mr Chouhan yesterday announced a roughly Rs 5,600-crore bounty for cultivators including cut in farm loans' interest rates and waiving penalty on power bills.

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