Gandhian Anna Hazare to launch yet another andolan from
Ram Leela Maidan on March 23 next year;
this time for the cause of agrarian crisis
By Deepak Parvatiyar*
Madurai: Gandhian
activist Anna Hazare has decided to once again launch an andolan from New Delhi’s Ramleela Ground on March 23 –
observed as martyrs’ day -- next year, this time to highlight growing agrarian
and water crisis in the country.
From Madurai, the erstwhile seat of ancient Pandyan dynasty
that had developed the renowned Pandyan tank system for water management, Anna gave a call for “Chalo Dilli” at the
inauguration of a national consultation meet on ‘Restoration of environmental
flow of rivers at their basin levels, alternative ways to share and manage
water resources’, here on Sunday. Anna said the andolan would be similar to the
anti corruption movement of August 2011, when he had sat on a hunger strike and
the ground was jam packed by people who supported his cause, for 23 days.
“Today farmers are in very bad condition. They are
committing suicide. Yesterday I wrote a letter to the Prime Minister providing
him details of the last ten years of the central cuts on rates for the farmers.
I have sent him the list of the rates that were recommended by state
governments for crops and what the centre actually granted…For example the
state recommendation for paddy was Rs. 2700 but the state brought it down by
half at Rs. 1360. Similarly in the last ten years, while the cost of cultivation
of cotton has increased six times, there has been an increment in cotton rates
of just Rs. 2000,” he said.
Stressing that the farmers should have the first right on
rivers and village water bodies, successive governments were according priority
to industry. “The first priority should be drinking water. The second priority
should be agriculture water. Water for industry should only be the third
priority,” he said.
It may be pointed out
that farmers’ suicide has become a major issue. In July, the government had informed the Parliament that in face of
failing monsoons and resulting agrarian crisis, that 11,400 and 12,602 farmers
had committed suicide across the country respectively in 2016 and, in 2015.
“Today banks is lending money to farmers on their own terms.
Some are lending at 8% interest, some at 9%, some at 10%. They are charging
compound interest which means paying interest on interest. Farmers end up
paying as high as 24% interest. How will
they pay?” he asked.
Water activists and scientists from South Indian states of
Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh as well as Maharashtra are attending
the three-day brain storming session consultation process under the leadership
of Magsaysay award winner ‘Waterman’ Rajendra Singh. Singh said the consultation meeting has been
called to involve South Indian people to discuss the water problem in south
India to find a way out.
*The writer is a senior journalist
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