Thousands of farmers descended on the Capital city on Tuesday demanding crop loan waiver and a hike in minimum support prices to 1.5 times the production cost.

Farmers belonging to different farmer organisations from different States assembled here to take part in a rally where Kisan Mukti Yatra, which commenced on July 6 from Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh, completed its first leg.

The march, organised by All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), an umbrella body of 130 farmer groups, will culminate in Champaran in Bihar on October 2.

Though the rally was addressed by many farmer leaders from across the country, the highlight of the event was the heart-rendering plea of 40 children from Maharashtra whose fathers had committed suicide in the recent past. “We plead with each one of you, whatever be your difficulties, please don’t take your life and make your children orphans like us,” the children told the farmers, who listened to them with moist eyes.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi, if you had implemented what you had promised the farmers of the country by now, at least of half of these children on the stage would have had their fathers alive,” said Raju Shetti, MP and founder of Swabhimani Shetkari Saghtana.

“Modi seems to have conveniently forgotten what he had promised to farmers, Shetti, a key functionary of AIKSCC, said adding that there was still time for the Prime Minister to set the record straight.

Rampal Jat, a farmer leader from Rajasthan and an AIKSCC executive member, said farmers from several villages in Rajasthan boycotted sending vegetables, fruits and milk to cities on July 9 as part of an agitation to demand crop loan waiver and better MSP for produce. “We plan to do it again later this month so that city dwellers will understand the problems faced by farmers in this country,” he said.

‘Will put pressure on govt’

Addressing the gathering, CPI (M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said a country where those who grow grains commit suicide has only a bleak future. He said his party would continue to put pressure on the NDA government to write-off the loans and pass a legislation to set MSP at one and a half times the expenditure. It has to be ensured that government agencies are always there if a farmer wants to sell his produce at such an MSP rate, he said.

Apart from farmers from the neighbouring States like Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, their counterparts from faraway States like Tamil Nadu and Karnataka were also present at the rally.

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