With two consecutive drought years leading to distress among the farming community, Yogendra Yadav-led Jai Kisan Andolan, a peasants' rights movement, today launched a helpline number for farmers to share their issues.
"Jai Kisan Andolan will act as a carrier for the voice of rural India and assist it in reaching the whole country and those in power," Jai Kisan Movement (Swaraj Abhiyan) said in a statement.
A helpline number -- 011-66977663 -- has been released for the farmers and rural people, where the problems being faced by villagers can be recorded," it said.
It said that the government never pays heed to the farmer's issues, "which always goes unheard".
"We will appeal to the farmers via mediums of calls, press releases and pamphlets to communicate their problems to the Prime Minister during this campaign," it said.
All the information received by us during this time will be made public on April 24, it said.
"At a time when the the country is witnessing a serious agrarian crisis, Jai Kisan Andolan is making an attempt to use such opportunities to bring forward the grave problems being faced by rural India and build pressure through the masses to solve the problem of farmers and villagers," it added.
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Farmer groups from across the country today came in support of agriculture ministry's move to regulate Bt cotton seed prices but also demanded a ban on all genetically modified organism (GMOs) including GM Mustard.
Farmer groups also submitted a declaration in support of the agricultural ministry's decision to regulate the price of Bt Cotton Seed, signed by over 30,000 farmers to Deputy Commissioner in Agriculture Ministry D S Misra.
Environmentalist Vandana Shiva who also joined the farmers asked the government to ban Bt cotton, which has been described by the Maharashtra Task force on Agrarian distress as a "killer crop".
The declaration asked the government to recognise the seed sovereignty as the right of farmers in order to prevent the exploitation of rural Indian farmers at the hand of fraudulent corporations.
The government should act sternly with corporations that are trying to loot the Indian farmers and should prevent seed monopolies from being created, the statement said.
