Govt "indifferent" towards suffering farmers: Modi refused to meet Gujarat ministers on cotton price issue

Saurashtra farmers' leaders discussion plan of action

By Our Representative
Three non-political farmers’ organizations, Saurashtra Khedut Ladat Samiti, Khedut Samaj Gujarat, and Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Sabha, have come together to ask the Gujarat government to add “bonus package” to the minimum support price (MSP) being offered to farmers by the Government of India for different farmers’ products, especially cotton, in order to protect them from being ruined. They have declared, if this is not done, they would be forced to "disrupt" the Vibrant Gujarat Business Summit, to take place on January 11-12 in Gandhinagar to attract foreign investment.
Forming Sanyukt Khedut Sangharsh Samiti to press their demand, their leaders told mediapersons in Ahmedabad that such “bonus is offered by several other Indian states, but as for Gujarat, it has “remained indifferent towards it.”
One of them, Sagar Rabari, told reporters, “In Saurashtra, the farmers are being offered just about Rs 650 to Rs 750 per 20 kg as against the MSP of Rs 850. The marketing yards have put up bills declaring they will not buy up cotton. Farmers producing cotton are on the brink. Majority of them had taken loan from informal financiers at a very high rate, anywhere between 1.5 per cent to 5 per cent per month, to cotton, hoping that, like last year, they would earn a good amount, but this has happened.”
“Most farmers are unable to pay back their debt, pushing them into distress. On the other hand, the Gujarat government is failing to take any concrete step”, said Rabari. Newspersons were told that at least two senior ministers of the Gujarat government, Nitin Patel and Bhupendrasinh Chudasma, had gone to represent before Prime Minister Narendra Modi to “solve” the problem.
“They waited for two hours. Modi didn’t meet them. The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) finally asked them to go and see the Union agriculture minister. The minister met them, but for just 45 seconds. They handed over their representation to the minister and returned empty handed”, the leaders said, quoting a senior BJP MLA.
“All this is happening at a time when farmers, especially cotton growers, are being pushed to the brink. Four of them have so far committed suicide, two over the last fortnight – in village Dharai near Chotila and village Fatehpur near Patdi. An impression is gaining ground that the Gujarat government is least interested in farmers’ plight. There is an industrial policy, an electronics policy, an agro-industries policy, but no agricultural policy”, Rabari said.

In a statement, the Samiti said, “The Government of Gujarat is going to spend crores of rupees on the Vibrant Gujarat summits at a time when cotton and groundnut farmers of Gujarat are forced to commit suicide on account of high input costs and low market yield for their produce. There is a race to welcome the big corporate with red carpet, but the stat government has neither money nor words of comfort to offer to farmers’ distraught families.”
The statement further said, “In the changed politico-economic environment, the political class considers backing the large corporates as profitable; the agricultural sector which employs even today nearly 70% of the work force and which provides the food security for the nation is not a priority. While other states are giving bonus over and above the MSP declared by the Central government, the Gujarat government is merely indulging in cheating farmers.”
The Samiti released a four-point programme before the media, including increasing of MSP to Rs 1200 per 20 kg for cotton and Rs 1000 per 20 kg for groundnut, plus a bonus of Rs 200 per kg; making it legally mandatory that all public auctions for farm products are above MSP; increase in electricity quota for farmers and regular power supply of 12 hours daily; make arrangements to expedite the crop insurance claims by October 31 every year; and a written assurance of not to decommand the Narmada command area.

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World Bank clarifies: Its 26th rank to India not for universal access to power but for ease of doing business

By Our Representative
In a major embarrassment to the Government of India, the World Bank has reportedly clarified that it has not ranked India 26th out of 130 countries for providing power to its population. The top international banker’s clarification comes following Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal’s claim that India has “improved to 26 position from 99” in access to electricity in just one year.

"Misleading" satellite images being shared on Balakot surgical strike on Jaish camp

By Dr Vinay Kate*
With every passing day more questions are being raised about the surgical strike India did in Balakot as a response to Pulwama attacks. So far the Indian media has claimed mass casulaty of 300+ terrorists of Jaish-e-Mohammad in this surgical strike, but there is hardly any report from foreign media about the same.

Extreme repression, corporate loot, cultural genocide "characterise" India's tribal belt

Counterview Desk
As Lok Sabha polls approach, there is considerable ferment in one section of the population -- India's Adivasis, forming about 8.6 per cent of India's population. Things became particularly critical following the February 14, 2019 Supreme Court order, allegedly seeking to evict lakhs of tribals from their forest lands.

Industry in India "barely growing", export growth 0%, whither moral anchors?

Counterview Desk
In a sharp critique of the Modi government, the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A), one of world renowned economist Prof Kaushik Basu, who is Professor of Economics and Carl Marks Professor of International Studies at Cornell University, has told students at the IIM-A’s 54th Annual Convocation on March 16, 2019 that they have a “special responsibility” on their shoulders, “the responsibility to reject narrow sectarianism, uphold scientific thinking, openness to new ideas, and freedom of speech.”

Gujarat model? Industrial effluents "invade" borewells, discharge coloured water in farms

By Rajiv Shah
In a major embarrassment for Gujarat model, of the 21 samples taken by officials of the state government's environmental watchdog Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) in two villages of Vadodara district and analyzed by its laboratory in Gandhinagar, the state capital, to find out pollution level in groundwater, 16 were assessed as highly contaminated – these were, in fact, found to be discharging reddish, brownish, reddish, or yellowish water.

Refugees as criminals? US govt report blames Amit Shah for calling Bangladeshis termites

Counterview Desk
The chapter “Freedom of Movement” of the US State Department’s “India 2018 Human Rights Report”, released recently, has criticized BJP chief Amit Shah for terming alleged Bangladeshis who may be in Assam as “termites”, because their names were struck down from the list of National Register of Citizens, under preparation in the state.
Pointing out that four million residents were excluded from Assam’s final draft list, leading to “uncertainty over the status of these individuals, many of whose families had lived in the state for several generations”, the report regrets, the Indian law does not even contain the term “refugee,” treating refugees like Rohingiyas as “any other foreigners.”
“Undocumented physical presence in the country is a criminal offense. Persons without documentation were vulnerable to forced returns and abuse”, the report says.
Text of the Freedom of Movement chapter: The law provides for freedom of internal movement, foreign travel, emigration, a…

Congress would win just 9 of 26 Lok Sabha seats: Gujarat Assembly segment-wise analysis

By Rajiv Shah
Even as the Congress plans its first working committee meet in Gujarat on February 28 after an almost 58 year gap, there is reason to wonder what is in store for India’s grand old party in a state which has been long been a BJP bastion – in fact ever since mid-1990s. Ahead of the then assembly polls in late 2012, talking with me, a senior Gujarat Congress leader, currently Rajya Sabha MP, frankly said he saw no reason why Congress would win.

"Pro-corporate" Supreme Court order on FRA would further marginalize Adivasis

By VS Roy David, JP Raju*
For millions of Adivasis and other traditional forest dwellers February 13, 2019 will go down in history as the day of apocalypse. This is like the proverbial Black Friday where millions of most marginalized people of India were ordered by malicious anti-people draconian Supreme Court order depriving them the life and livelihood by evicting them from their habitats.

Financial inclusion? Not micro-loans; India's poor "need" investment in health, education

By Moin Qazi*
India has grown into a global powerhouse. Its economy is soaring but the picture on the ground is still quite arid. The green shoots that you see are only a patch of its landscape. Most Indians are hapless victims of inequity. India is one country where intense poverty abounds in the shadow of immense wealth.

India, Pakistan told to eliminate nuclear weapons: N-war "would kill" 2 billion

Counterview Desk
The International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), a non-partisan federation of national medical organizations in 64 countries, representing tens of thousands of doctors, medical students, other health workers, and concerned citizens, claiming to share the common goal of creating a more peaceful and secure world freed from the threat of nuclear annihilation, has warned that “an unprecedented global catastrophe” awaits the globe against the backdrop of warmongering in India and Pakistan.

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