BKS joins Gujarat farmers’ stir

Rajkot Marketing Yard chairman Shamjibhai Khunt, who is leading the agitation, was jubilant. He said, “Even the Gondal Marketing Yard, which had not joined us in a bandh last month, suspended trading this time.”

Government officials had tried to contact Khunt twice on Sunday. He said he would definitely have met Singh had he arrived in Rajkot — and invited him for talks. “After all he is not our enemy.”

But officials did not say anything about the cancellationof Singh’s trip. Saurashtra Oil Millers Association leader Himmatbhai Unadkat also denied any scheduled meeting with the minister. “We only knew he was going to address a press conference.”

Unadkat denied that millers in the region were on strike. He said there was no question of millers joining hands with marketing yards even though millers favoured free movement of groundnut.

Since groundnut oil has been declared an essential commodity, the government can cancel licences of mills that stop crushing groundnut. This is perhaps the reason millers are not joining the bandh.

In Rajkot, the BKS’s protest march was led by Sangh president Praful Senjalia from Trikon Baug to the collectorate. The Sangh handed over a memorandum to district collector Pravin Trivedi, who was forced to reach to the office even though he was on leave.

The agitators had threatened to stage a sit-in if the collector did not arrive to hear them. Significantly, Senjalia and other leaders who addressed farmers from various parts ofRajkot district, made it clear that they were not asking for lifting the curbs on inter-state movement on groundnut.

“We are concerned about better prices for farmers, and this cannot be less than Rs 350 (per 20 kg bag) since the cost of inputs and labour has gone up over the years,” Senjalia said.

He said when the government had money for importing agriculture commodities like potato and onion, why could it not afford to give farmers remunerative price for groundnut.

Stressing that the inter-state movement of the commodity was an export trade and it does not automatically ensure the better prices to producers, they maintained that the best course for the government was to buy from the open market and create a buffer stock.

After that the government could allow inter-state movement of groundnut oil, the Sangh suggested in the memorandum. They also complained that the prices quoted by the yards were misleading as farmers in reality did not get that much prices. The Sangh also demanded several otherthings including grant of immediate electricity connections for farmers.