Ahead of Rakesh Tikait’s visit, police crackdown on agitating farmers’ in Chhattisgarh

RAIPUR: Ahead of Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rajesh Tikait’s visit, Congress government in Chhattisgarh cracked down on agitating new capital project-affected farmers of Naya Raipur when the police swooped down on agitating farmers, who were continuing their dharna at Naya Raipur, to clear the area in the wee hours on Sunday.
The project-affected farmers of Naya Raipur were on agitation in front of the Naya Raipur Development Authority (NRDA) office in the new capital for the last 113 days in support of their various demands, including adequate compensation for their land acquired for the new state capital project.BKU leader Rajesh Tikait released a video a few days ago announcing that he would visit Raipur on April 27 and 28 in support of the agitating farmers.
A team of police personnel reached the agitation venue at Naya Raipur around 3.30 Am on Sunday and forcibly removed the farmers present there, uprooted the tents and cleared the premises. The farmers belonging to Naya Raipur Kisan Kalyan Samiti were protected against the police action but were detained. Its leaders told the media in the morning that the detained farmers were taken to an undisclosed location.
Meanwhile, the state government issued a press release stating that “the farmers have illegally erected tents and played loudspeakers for their agitation for the last more than three months. From time to time, they took out rallies and disrupted normal situation in the area”. It claimed that the state government had accepted some of their demands and its implementation is in progress after holding discussions several times.
Referring to the death of the farmer during the agitation, the government maintained that a magisterial inquiry into his death has concluded that farmer Siyaram Patel died due to the negligence of the agitators, who gathered and organised agitation without permission and proper arrangements. It said the officials and staff of the NRDA office were facing harassment due to unrestricted use of loudspeakers.
The state government also maintained that a committee, comprising three ministers headed by agriculture minister Ravindra Choubey, had had several rounds of discussion with the agitating farmers. Besides officials have also held talks with them and later the state has accepted six out of their eight demands.
The police action against agitating farmers comes a day after the police cane charged, dragged and arrested contractual workers of the electricity department in the state capital on Saturday. The contract workers of the electricity department were in agitation for the last few weeks demanding regularisation of their services, as promised earlier.