GANDHINAGAR – The BJP’s Kisan Morcha’s ‘Namo Kisan Panchayat’ is receiving a mixed response in the villages. At numerous places, BJP workers have faced tough questions, even having to wind up the programme instead of educating the farmers about the state and Central governments’ agriculture related programmes and policies.

Party leaders had launched the ‘Namo Kisan Panchayat’ on September 5. The motive is to reach out to each farmer through 14,000 kisan panchayats and explain to them about the agriculture programmes and benefits to the farmers, and at the same time collect data from the farmers about the benefits they have availed from these programmes.

Till Friday evening, the ‘Namo Kisan Panchayat’ had covered 8500 villages, claimed Hitesh Patel, president of the BJP Kisan Morcha. He also claimed receiving a very good response.

The farmers are not at all enthusiastic about the BJP’s propaganda and the claims made by the BJP of success are blatant lies, alleged Jagmal Arya, president of the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS), a wing of the RSS. Farmers are facing severe issues of not receiving the minimum support price for their crops, shortage of irrigation water and power and many others.

According to Arya, BKS members are protesting and not allowing the holding of these panchayats in districts like Banaskantha, Sabarkantha, Mehsana, Junagadh, Kheda and others.

Farmers have not participated in the panchayats at many locations, said Sagar Rabari, a farmer and AAP leader. The BJP workers are not talking about compensation for damage to crops in the heavy rain. Diesel prices have shot up and so the production cost of crops, MSP and open market rates are too low to meet the production cost. These issues are not addressed in the ‘Kisan Namo Panchayat’ and so the farmers are unhappy and not participating, he added.

Workers don’t have ground knowledge of the agriculture sector, they are just tutored about the government policies and programmes. So when the farmers put questions and ask for solutions, the BJP workers cannot answer, which angers the farmers and they force the workers to leave the village, claimed Dahyabhai Gajera, president of the leftist Kisan Sabha. -IANS