West Bengal farmers have begun a statewide ‘Kisan Adhikar Jatra’ from February 10, 2021 to demand money from the state and the central government for nearly six million farmers under the Kisan Samman Nidhi Scheme.
According to a Jai Kisan Andolan member, the protests will be focused in the Sundarbans region but branch out to other districts by February 12. Moreover, the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC) has organised mass demonstrations at the panchayat, block and district levels in all districts. It will also send letters of demand to the Prime Minister, the West Bengal Chief Minister and all state MPs and MLAs so that they can take the necessary steps to settle all dues of farmers immediately.
Alleging political motivation for non-action and indifference of the concerned administration, the AIKSCC said, “From the very beginning, the farmers of Bengal have been deprived of the benefits of this scheme as the state government has not verified the information of the applicant farmers. The central government, with its own database and system, has made no effort to ensure that the farmers of Bengal receive this payment.”
The Kisan Nidhi Scheme is a central money scheme which was announced on February 1, 2019. However, it is applicable from December 1, 2018, i.e. before the date of announcement. Under this scheme, all farmers in India are eligible for financial assistance of Rs. 6,000 per annum. This assistance will be given in 3 instalments of Rs. 2,000 with fixed dates of April 1, August 1 and December 1.
The Trinamool state government and the BJP central government till date owe Rs 2,000 in 6 instalments (total Rs 12,000) to state farmers. By April 1, 2021, every Bengal farmer will be owed Rs. 14,000. Farmers have repeatedly demanded financial assistance for the scheme but no one has listened to them.
Earlier, the Chief Minister said that the West Bengal government wrote a letter to the central government stating that it had agreed to expedite the verification process for the scheme. According to a senior BJP leader, out of 2.2 million farmers registered on the central government’s portal, the state government has received information on 7 lakh farmers for verification and has already claimed 2.5 lakh farmers.
The AIKSCC appealed to both governments to publish accurate figures on the number of applications and data and verification of farmers’ information under the scheme.
“Despite this statement of the Chief Minister, it is seen that so far no farmer in Bengal has received a single penny of financial assistance from the Central Government for the Kisan Scheme,” they said.
Accordingly, the organisations asked the state government to set up camps at the Panchayat level for the registration of all eligible farmers within 15 days, complete verification within 7 days of registration, and demanded appropriate changes in the Kisan project to pay the arrears to farmers amounting to Rs. 12,000 to all registered and eligible farmers within 7 days of verification.
A few days ago, Prime Minister Narednda Modi announced at an election rally in Haldia that the arrears would be settled as soon as the BJP came to power in West Bengal. The AIKSCC condemned this “immoral, illegal, unconstitutional and political opportunist” statement of Modi. Leaders pointed out that the state government has no role to play in settling the arrears. Moreover, they said that such a statement deprives the 22 lakh farmers of Bengal who have registered under the Kisan Scheme, as per Modi’s claims.
They asked, “When all the farmers across India have been able to get the money for the Kisan scheme by voting for whomever they want, the question arises that the farmers of Bengal will be eligible to get money in this scheme only if they vote for BJP, how can this be? How can the Prime Minister link the issue of arrears of a scheme of the Central Government to the farmers of Bengal with the electoral success of the BJP in the state?”
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