Provide for jail term for people buying crops below MSP: BKU chief Tikait

Don't want to miss the best from Business Standard?

Bharatiya Kisan Union national president Naresh Tikait on Thursday demanded a provision for jail terms for corporates and businessmen seeking to purchase farmers' produce at a price below the MSP.

Tikait raised he demand while addressing farmers sitting for the last four days at UP Gate on Delhi-Meerut highway's Delhi-Ghaziabad border, where they also had a few skirmishes with police on blocking the traffic.

The BKP chief demanded a statutory provision for a jail term for people buying farmers' produce below the MSP saying there would be no compromise on the issue of minimum support price.

The government must give an assurance in writing that any business house or merchant who will purchase the agriculture produce below the MSP would be jailed, said Tikait, addressing the farmers' Mahapanchayat at the UP Gate.

There must be a provision for this in the law, he added, emphasising that there would be no settlement on the issue of MSP.

The MSP is a matter of life and death for farmers, he asserted.

After addressing farmers, Tikait left for Delhi to meet government officials.

While addressing farmers, Tkait also urged them not to block the up-and-down central carriageways of the 14-lane National Highway 9 and to keep them open for essential service traffic like the movement of ambulances etc.

He also personally intervened to ensure that the central carriageways of the highway remain open.

But soon after, Tikait left for Delhi, a new group of farmers arrived from Bulandshahr and sought to bloc the central carriageways as well following which they had brief skirmishes with police, said BKU state secretary Harendra Nehra.

The matter was, however, resolved soon, he said, adding that the protesting farmers then joined the ongoing sit-in at the UP Gate.