Angry crop, damaged seed

Their area 8212; Kaithal, Jind and some parts of Rohtak, Sonepat and Bhiwani districts 8212; is the least developed part of Haryana. At Kandela village in Jind, which has become the nerve centre of the struggle, 80 per cent of the farmers have defaulted on electricity bills since as far back as 1992.

The area8217;s literacy rates are one of the lowest in the state 8212; Jind8217;s is 62.8 per cent and Kaithal8217;s 59.50 per cent as compared to Ambala district which has the highest 8212; 76 per cent.

Eighty per cent of the population of Jind and Kaithal is based in rural areas and dependent on agriculture. The sex ratio in Jind is 852 females per 1000 males and 854 in Kaithal as compared to 861 which is the state average.

Significantly, 43,535 people, out of a total population of 11,89,725, have registered themselves as unemployed in Jind alone while many more are just engaged in farming on small plots owned by their families.

Deputy Commissioner of Jind H S Dhankad is a worried man today. 8216;8216;This is one of the biggest problems here and we are worried because that8217;s how the terrorist movement started in Punjab,8217;8217; he says.

8216;8216;We would rather sit hungry in our own fields than work in somebody else8217;s farm for a pittance,8217;8217; says 35-year-old Karnail Singh, a marginal farmer. That is the reason why labourers from Bihar find work here despite the widespread unemployment. 8216;8216;They think it is below their dignity to work as labourers. That is why we want NGOs to concentrate on schemes to encourage self-employment. There is a limit to government jobs,8217;8217; says Dhankad.

These lathi-wielding young men talk of exams and interviews they never cleared and letters of appointments which never came. 8216;8216;After doing diploma in civil engineering, I applied for a job in the civil engineering department in Jind, CRPF and the Army. But I did not have any money to bribe, so I did not get through,8217;8217; says 22-year-old Anil Kumar. He has become a barber is now lending a hand to the BKU.

And BKU is now catching them young. Meet 13-year-old Jagmohan. He is a student of Geeta Model School, Kaithal. While his peers are appearing for exams, he is running from one house to the other. A fugitive, he is the youngest activist of BKU and has at least five cases under the CrPC slapped on him.

His crime, he says, is giving inflammatory speeches under the BKU banner. 8216;8216;How can government ask us to pay our electricity dues after promising us that they will waive it off and when they know that we hardly earn enough to eat,8217;8217; he says.

The BKU leaders have told him that there is no future for him in the country. 8216;8216;What is the point in trying for a job when the government has already sold the country to foreign multinationals,8217;8217; he asks.

BKU was founded in 1984 to provide a platform to farmers, but today there are few genuine farmers left in their fold though their network has spread. Why is the issue of power bills so potent? Apart from the fact that agriculture does not yield enough to pay these bills, unpaid electricity bills mean a lot of misery 8212; from school admissions to ration cards and registration of land, they8217;re required by the government to present a 8216;no dues8217; certificate. 8216;8216;If we do not have it, it means we cannot do anything in our lives,8217;8217; said Ram Ner Singh.

At least half the farmers had come forward to take advantage of the new waiver scheme announced by the state government which allows them to pay the bill in easy installments but they are constantly threatened with social boycott.

And political parties like the Congress are fishing in these troubled waters, giving them hope that CM Om Prakash Chautala can be brought down on his knees. It keeps them going.