BJP stages protest to highlight farmer's plight

New Delhi, June 14 : The Farmer's front of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) staged a protest here today against the Central Government's failure to understand the farmer's problem.

BJP activists raised slogans and held placards against the Congress led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government for its failure to control inflation and save debt-ridden farmers from committing suicides.

The Delhi unit BJP president Harsh Vardhan said that rising prices of essential commodities and rising inflation have further increased the problems for farmers.

Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has proposed to waive off 600 billion rupees of bank loans to farmers, in the financial year ending March 2009. Later the ambitious farm loan waiver was increased to rupees 716.8 billion.

The UPA Government has been facing embarrassment on the issue of suicide by thousands of farmers in recent years across western and southern plateau because they could not pay loans taken for their crops.

The Government has officially admitted to the suicide deaths of 3,600 farmers over the last five years. Most of them were unable to repay their loans and the huge interest payments accruing on them due to crops failure.

ANI