�Govt not sensitive towards farmers�: Anna Hazare to begin protest from tomorrow

29-01-2021

Social activist Kisan Baburao alias Anna Hazare on Thursday announced that he will begin an indefinite fast at his hometown Ralegan Siddhi in Maharashtra�s Ahmednagar district from January 30 over various demands related to farmers. He hit out at the Centre for not paying attention to his pleas on the farmers' demands, forcing him to go on another hunger strike from tomorrow. The 84-year-old anti-graft activist further made an appeal to his supporters to protest from their respective locations. "I have been agitating for important demands of farmers for the last four years. It seems like the government is not taking proper decision on the issue of farmers. The government is not sensitive towards the farmers," said Anna Hazare in a press statement. "We have kept our demands before the Central Government time and again. I have written letters to the Prime Minister and Union Agriculture Minister five times in the last three months. Representatives of the government are discussing the matter but they haven't reached proper solution regarding the demands so far," he added. �So, I will start a fast from the Yadavbaba Temple in Ralegan-Siddhi on January 30, the anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi's assassination," declared Hazare. Taking about his struggles, Hazare said he had launched a hunger strike on March 23, 2018, in Delhi and on March 29, the Prime Minister�s Office gave a written assurance on the MSP demand and other issues. The government did not obey the same, pushing him to go on another strike in Ralegan-Siddhi from January 30, 2019. A week later, the Union Agriculture Minister and then Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis discussed the matter with him. "After six hours of talks, I was again given a written assurance about the decision. But no concrete action has been taken on it till date. Assurance is a promise. If the government does not keep it (promise) then how will the country and society get a bright future," Hazare asked. Farmers continue to kill themselves even today as they fail to procure the right amount for their agriculture produce, and the Centre claims it has implemented the MS Swaminathan Commission recommendations, but the facts are otherwise, said Hazare. "Government representatives keep coming here and discussing, but till date, no proper solution has been arrived at on the farmers� demands," he further said. While expressing his grief at the violence that was witnessed in Delhi on January 26, Hazare underlined the need for a 'non-violent agitation'. "In the past 40 years, I have organised many agitations. The Lokpal Movement was in New Delhi where lakhs of people from across India joined, but not a stone was thrown. Peace is the power for this struggle, which Gandhiji has taught us," he said. Hazare also urged his supporters to sit on peaceful agitations in their respective areas in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.