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Unseasonal Rain: Congress Demands Justice

Unseasonal Rain – Shaktisinh Highlights Farmer Suicides, Starts The ‘Khedut Aakrosh Yatra”

Shri Shaktisinh Gohil (MP) asks the government to give full compensation to farmers who lost all their crops due to unseasonal rain, based on the area they planted.
Shri Shaktisinh Gohil (MP) asks: The crop insurance plan works in every state except Gujarat. So, what is the fault of the farmers in Gujarat? If the plan had been working, we could have saved millions of Gujarat’s farmers from financial ruin.
Shri Shaktisinh Gohil (MP) asks: If the BJP government can forgive loans of 21 lakh crore rupees for the country’s businessmen, and forgive the debts of businessmen who ran away from the country, why not for the farmers of Gujarat?
There is not enough animal fodder (food) for the cattle, so the government should provide it for free to the animal rearers.

At a special press conference at Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan, Shri Shaktisinh Gohil, a Member of Parliament and former President of the Gujarat Congress, showed deep care for the farmers completely ruined by unseasonal rain in Gujarat. He demanded that the government give these farmers compensation for the full area they planted.

When unseasonal or heavy rain hits, farmers can lose their entire harvest. The way the government finds out how much money to give is called a crop damage survey. Farmers often ask for money based on the full amount of land they use for farming (the area planted). This is because a partial payment may not be enough to cover their costs for seeds, fertiliser, and labour.

The crop insurance plan was stopped in Gujarat state in 2020. He said if the plan had been active, millions of farmers in Gujarat could have been saved from financial ruin. He asked: The crop insurance plan works in every state except Gujarat. So, what is the fault of the farmers in Gujarat?

Most Indian states are part of a national plan called Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY). This plan is like insurance for crops. Farmers pay a small fee, and if their crops are damaged by natural disasters, they get money from the insurance company. Gujarat left this national plan in 2020 and started its own insurance plan.

The situation of farmers in Gujarat is very bad. A young farmer in Bhanvad Taluka of Devbhoomi Dwarka took a loan against his gold to plant crops. After the total loss of the crop, the farmer was forced to take his own life. A similar sad event of suicide happened in Una Taluka of Gir Somnath. This is heartbreaking.

Shri Shaktisinh Gohil appealed that during this difficult time, the whole of Gujarat and the Congress party stand with the farmers. He asked them to keep their family in mind and not take the extreme step of suicide.

When the ‘father of the world’ (farmers) in Gujarat state are facing disaster, the government is causing trouble in the name of a survey. Farmers have complained a lot about the survey process. So, the government should stop the drama of the survey and give farmers compensation for the whole area they planted.

A government survey is meant to check the damage to crops and how much money should be given. However, farmers sometimes complain that the survey is too slow, that officials do not visit their fields, or that the officials mark the damage as less than it really is. This is why the speaker is calling the slow and flawed process a “drama” and asking for full payment without a detailed survey.

Banks sometimes have loans that the borrower cannot repay. This is called a “written-off” loan or “non-performing asset” (NPA). Political leaders often argue that when huge loans of large companies are written off (forgiven by banks), the government should do the same for the smaller loans of farmers, especially when they are facing a crisis. A loan waiver means the government pays the farmer’s debt to the bank so the farmer doesn’t have to.

In the past, during times of trouble for farmers, the Congress-led UPA government forgave loans of 72,000 crore rupees for millions of farmers across the country. During the 2014 Lok Sabha election campaign, the current Prime Minister announced that the first announcement after forming the government would be to forgive farmer loans. It has been 11 years, and this has not happened.

Farmers often face high debt (money they owe) to buy seeds and other supplies. Losing a crop means losing both the investment and the income. This pressure can become too much for some farmers, leading to sad outcomes like suicide. The speaker is highlighting the human cost of the crisis.

When Gujarat’s farmers are in deep trouble, what is stopping the ‘Double Engine’ government (State and Central) and the ‘5 Trillion’ economy government from forgiving loans? If the BJP government can forgive loans of 21 lakh crore rupees for the country’s businessmen, and forgive the debts of businessmen who ran away from the country, why not for the farmers of Gujarat?

Shri Shaktisinh Gohil demanded that the loans of Gujarat’s farmers should be forgiven immediately. If Congress governments in Karnataka and Telangana can directly give 16,000 and 18,000 rupees per acre to farmers’ bank accounts, then the loans of Gujarat’s farmers should be forgiven, and they should be paid compensation for the area they planted.

Along with the farmers in Gujarat, the animal rearers are also suffering and in trouble. The animal fodder that came from groundnut and soybean leaves is destroyed. There is now a shortage of fodder for the cattle. In the past, the Congress government used to provide free fodder by train from South India. The government should quickly provide fodder for the cattle. They should arrange to give the fodder available in the Forest Department’s warehouses to the cattle rearers.

The Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee will start the ‘Khedut Aakrosh Yatra’ (Farmer’s Anger Journey) from November 6th, after visiting the Somnath Mahadev Jyotirlinga in Gujarat state.

This Yatra will be led by Shri Amitbhai Chavda (President of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee) and Dr. Tusharbhai Chaudhari (Leader of the Congress Party in the Legislative Assembly). The ‘Khedut Aakrosh Yatra’ will cover the entire Saurashtra region until November 13th to speak up about the farmers’ troubles and pain. Different regional leaders have been given the duty for different days of the Yatra. As part of this, Shri Shaktisinh Gohil will be present on November 8th for the journey from Khijadiya Hanuman-Amreli to Gadhada.