Kisan Sangh seeks full waiver of power bills, agricultural loan interest

Later on, talking to the mediapersons, Patel said that the government had accepted half of their demands that included 50 per cent waver in electricity bill amounting to Rs 500 crore and Rs 600 crore waiver on interest on agricultural loan.

He asserted that BKS was demanding 100 per cent waiver on electricity bills of farmers and interest on pending agricultural loans.

He said that BKS wanted MSP for cotton to be hiked to Rs 1,000 per 20 kg and that of groundnut to Rs 1,100 per 20 kg. He said that he did not agree to government spokespersons declaration to consider “reasonable” increase.

BKS, he said, wanted to lift restrictions on export of cotton and impose 40 per cent of import duty on import of cotton to help farmers to get better price of their produce. But he said that the government was not easing restrictions on cotton export to favour the local textile industries.

Patel said that increase in MSP of cotton and groundnut was needed immediately as input cost in their production had gone up considerably.

Patel said that if the labour cost of the farmers was also included, the agriculture would be a losing profession.

He also asked the farmers to increase the membership BKS in the state to 50 lakh during the membership drive to be carried out from January 1 to 15, 2015. Patel said that he wanted BKS members in each of 18,000 villages in the state to make BKS the strongest organisation in the state.