Agartala, Jun 28, 2024, TRIPURATIMES Desk

Agartala, June 28: The state unit of the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) on Friday demanded the government at the Centre to review the Minimum Support Price (MSP) on the basis of C2+50 per cent formula for the welfare of the farmers across the state.

AIKS state committee leader Pabitra Kar led a rally here at Agartala on Friday to press for the demand and said that the farmers across the country including the state of Tripura are struggling due to the anti-farmer policy of the BJP government.

He observed that despite the Central government had announced Rs 23 per kg of paddy as MSP for the farmers, which was opposed by the AIKS, the state government in Tripura is procuring paddy from the farmers at MSP of Rs 21 per kg, which is more less than that of central government’s rate. He said, “The Tripura government is cheating the farmers here with the MSP that they had fixed.”

He alleged that the farmers in Tripura are struggling under the rule of the BJP government, as they are being neglected. The government has failed to compensate the farmers, who were affected by the recent natural calamities in the state, he said, adding that in view of the upcoming Panchayat elections, the government has recently announced to compensate 81000 farmers. He further observed that a large number of agricultural productions were damaged by the natural calamities, following which the farmers incurred hefty loss pushing price rise of vegetables in the market.

“We had met the Chief Minister, agriculture minister and various other officials of the agriculture department in different parts of the state to highlight the issues of farmers and we demanded appropriate action on this. We were told that the government is looking into the agriculture issue on serious note,” he told reporters.

On the other hand, the AIKS leader Pabitra Kar also slammed the government over not taking any appropriate action over the ‘Ulta Rath’ tragedy. He said, “One year has passed by that the incident took place at Kumarghat on this day previous year, where 10 people died and several others were injured, but the government had failed to act on it.”