Farmers in Uttarakhand hold mahapanchayat, put forth 4 demands
ROORKEE: Uttarakhand Kisan Morcha (UKM) held a mahapanchayat in Haridwar’s Roorkee area on Monday with four key demands — free electricity for tubewells for a year, compensation of Rs 10,000 per bigha for sugarcane crop loss, Rs 600 per quintal price for sugarcane, and waiver of all loans.
For the past two weeks, UKM held several meetings in villages across the district to discuss issues with farmers. “We held meetings in around 250 villages to take support of farmers, and farmers’ presence in huge numbers established that farmers are not happy with the way government is handling issues related to farmers, who have already faced heavy losses owing to incessant rains and flooding in the district,” said Gulshan Rod, UKM president.
For the past two weeks, UKM held several meetings in villages across the district to discuss issues with farmers. “We held meetings in around 250 villages to take support of farmers, and farmers’ presence in huge numbers established that farmers are not happy with the way government is handling issues related to farmers, who have already faced heavy losses owing to incessant rains and flooding in the district,” said Gulshan Rod, UKM president.
Farmers from across the district reached the mahapanchayat, which lasted for three hours, in over 1,000 tractors and motorcycles. The protest led to traffic holdovers across Roorkee. Later, a memorandum of their demands was also presented to joint magistrate Abhinav Shah. “We had already informed schools and the public about the mahapanchayat’s movement. So, to avoid congestion, we diverted traffic to other routes,” said SP (rural) Swapn Kishore Singh.
