Leaders of the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC) today requested the President to convene a special session of the Parliament immediately to discuss the ongoing agrarian crisis in the country.
A 17-member delegation met the president and submitted a memorandum urging him to address the immediate crisis of farm debts and guaranteed remunerative minimum support prices of farm products.
"A special session of Parliament is the only way out to discuss the agrarian crisis in the present scenario where even a 'no confidence motion' is not allowed to be taken up due to disorder in the House. While the country can have a midnight special session for GST, don't the farmers of the country who have been sacrificing their lives to ensure food security of the country, deserve this special session to save their lives?" the memorandum says.
Stating that their two demands are closely connected, the AIKSCC delegation also said that they wanted these demands to be secured as legal rights for farmers.
"If the issue of remunerative prices alone is tackled without providing relief from indebtedness, the increased returns would only go to pay back increasing loans. On the other hand, if only loan wavers are provided without addressing the issue of remunerative prices, farmers would again be pushed back into the debt trap," AIKSCC leader Hannan Mollah said.
The delegation also added that their demand for special session was not "unprecedented".
"While we are seeking a special session in the light of suicide by 3.5 lakh farmers in the country, there is a precedent where the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee convened a special session in December 2003 to discuss the sugarcane crisis in the country in the light of the death of three sugarcane farmers of Manderva in Basti district of Uttar Pradesh," said another AIKSCC leader, Atul Anjan.
The leaders claimed that the President has assured them to look into the matter on priority basis.
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