New Delhi: A farmer in Baghpat district’s Baraut town who had been on a hunger strike for the past week died on Saturday, May 26.Farmers have been agitating in Baraut, about 30 kilometres from poll-bound Kairana, for the last several days demanding payment of pending dues for the sugar cane they supplied to mills in the region.
“Several farmers had been agitating for the last week in Baraut. Some farmers had also been on a hunger strike, including Udayveer (the deceased) against the apathy of the government. Udayveer felt weak all of a sudden after five days of hunger strike and collapsed this afternoon (May 26). He was declared dead by doctors,” said Krishna Pal Tomar, a local farm leader.
With cane dues touching Rs 13,000 crore in Uttar Pradesh, farmers in western UP’s sugarcane belt are on the edge as their troubles continue to mount. “There seems to be no respite for us. Sugar mills have stopped paying farmers. Now, the season is ending and yet the government has not stepped in to provide any kind of relief. It is unfortunate that farmers have to die like this and still the government doesn’t want to listen” said Kuldeep Tyagi, president of the western UP-based Bhartiya Kisan Andolan.
Pending sugarcane dues has become the most important issue in the Kairana by-poll with the opposition attacking the BJP over non-payment. Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit Baghpat on Sunday for the opening of an expressway, with one eye on the Kairana by-poll due to be held the next day.
Farmers say they will stage a protest at Modi’s rally in Kairana.