Farmers on a warpath

By K. Balchand

PATNA, DEC. 5. Rural Bihar is seething with unrest thanks to the crash in the sale price of paddy and the volatile situation threatens to turn the farmers' confrontation with the Centre into an explosive one.

The issue has caught the imagination of 85 per cent of the population living in rural areas who are solely dependent on the agriculture sector for their livelihood. The ruling RJD has taken up the issue on behalf of the farmers with the NDA Government which has been accused of allegedly favouring the farmers of Punjab and Haryana.

Apart from the fact that the Centre and the State Governments are locked in a battle for political mileage, the Centre seems to be at the receiving end of the wrath of the farmers for not coming to their rescue as in Punjab. The farmers are not only piqued by the Centre's indifference towards their plight but enraged by reports that the Centre intended to send the paddy it procured in Punjab for storage and sale in Bihar.

The farmers are burning their paddy at several places including the State capital to register their protest and they have threatened stringent action if the Centre goes ahead with its decision to dispatch a train load of paddy to Bihar.

The RJD has said the paddy that the FCI was forced to purchase by the Centre under pressure from its ally, the Akali Dal, was rotten. The RJD president, Mr. Laloo Prasad Yadav, has already warned of an agitation and successfully made an issue of it placing the BJP and its allies-the Samata Party, the JD (U) and the Jan Shakti in the dock.

The Centre's decision to send paddy from Punjab to Bihar is surprising, particularly in the light of its claim that it did not have the necessary storage space in the State to make an adequate purchase here. The farmers are questioning the seriousness of the FCI in making purchases at the procurement centres it proposes to open in the next few days.

The Union Food and Civil Supplies Minister, Mr. Shanta Kumar, had agreed to open procurement centres in Bihar in response to a letter by the State Chief Minister to the Prime Minister. The Water Resources Minister, Mr. Jagdanand Singh, has held the Centre responsible for the farmers' plight by dumping subsidised rice and not allowing the demand and supply mechanism a free play. He said the farmers would have to bear the brunt for years to come if they were not supported immediately with a fair return for their produce.

The farmers' movement is gaining momentum as they apprehend that the Centre's action would be a discouraging factor from increasing their agricultural output. They point out that they were being forced to sell paddy at Rs. 300 per quintal as against the support price of Rs. 510 per quintal announced by the Centre.

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