BJP's farm protests target MP govt, Cong hits out at Centre

The BJP held protests across Madhya Pradesh on Monday to highlight what it claimed was the failure of the Congress-led Kamal Nath government to give relief to farmers affected by heavy rains.

The opposition party's 'Kisan Akrosh Andolan' slamming the state government on false promises of loan waiver and power bill cuts saw counter-protests by the Congress which accused the NDA government at the Centre of ignoring MP farmers' rain woes.

Before the protest in Rewa, former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan met the kin of a farmer who committed suicide recently, allegedly due to debt, in Patna village.

"The Congress made false promises of loan waiver which was not fulfilled. Our farmers are forced to commit suicides. They are being served recovery notices by the banks," he said.

"If farmers' debts are not waived off, compensation for crop loss is not given, inflated electricity bills are not withdrawn, we will not allow the Kamal Nath government to continue," he added.

BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, who led a protest in Ujjain, courted arrest along with 300 workers, and was later released.

MP BJP president Rakesh Singh led the protest in Narsinghpur and accused the Congress of lying on the issue of allocation of funds by the Centre.

"The Madhya Pradesh government is lying. The Centre has already allocated more funds than the state's share. Why is the Congress not fulfilling promises it made to farmers," he said.

Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly, Gopal Bhargava, led BJP workers in Bhopal and taunted the Kamal Nath dispensation claiming money it was making through corruption was enough to give adequate compensation to farmers.

"If the money earned through corruption by ministers and government officials, including for postings in transport department, is distributed, the farm loan waiver scheme can be easily implemented and compensation for crop loss can be distributed," he claimed.

In Indore, BJP workers led by ex-Speaker of Lok Sabha Sumitra Mahajan staged a protest at the district collectors office.

Mahajan accused the state government of insensitivity and said its representatives were yet to meet farmers who had lost their crops.

BJP protesters across the state burnt power bills that they claimed were inflated.

The Congress' counter-protests against the Centre stressed on the latter's failure to disburse Rs 6621.28 crore under the National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF) to the state.