As per an announcement made by Paschim Odisha Krushak Sangathan Samanwaya Samiti (POKSSS), umbrella body of various farmer organisations which includes more than 50 lakh farmers in Western Odisha, it will mobilise farmers to opt for NOTA in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
“The leaders and the activists of POKSSS have been asked to opt for NOTA (none of the above). They would also campaign and mobilise the farmers to opt for NOTA, instead of voting for the Congress, the BJD and the BJP,” POKSSS Convener Lingaraj told reporters.
Alleging both the BJP and BJD for betraying the farmers, he also said that KALIA and the PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi schemes are clever tactics to evade the major demands of the farmers such as complete waiver of loan, implementation of Swaminathan Commission recommendations and bonus for the agricultural produces at the state level.
Targeting the Congress, Lingaraj stated, “The Swaminathan Commission was formed in 2004 when there was Congress-led UPA government at the Centre. The report of the commission was submitted in 2006.
Though the party was in power for 8 years after the report was submitted, the Congress did not show any interest to implement the recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission.”
The organisation has prepared themselves with a set of questions to put pressure on the political parties and printed leaflets with the same: Why the agricultural work has been recognised as non-skilled, why the Farmers’ Income Commission is not being formed, why the government is not acknowledging the incidents of farmer suicides, why the Union and state governments have remained silent over the Mahanadi water dispute, why no measures are being taken to give legal status to share croppers, when will the old relief code will change and why all the political parties are reluctant to give compensation to the farmers.
