MP CM gives support to farmers' stir; draws flak from Cong

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced here today that farmers would stage a road blockade and shut down agitation on March 6 to protest against Centre for not providing assistance to them, drawing criticism from Opposition Congress.
Reacting to Chouhan's announcement, MP state Congress president Arun Yadav termed Chouhan's moral support to the stir as "unconstitutional".
After visiting rain and hailstorm affected farmers in Vidisha and Rajgarh districts, Chouhan announced that farmers would stage a road blockade for an hour from 11 am to 12 pm noon and observe a shut down until 2 pm to highlight their plight, official sources said.

"Despite my repeated requests, the Centre has not responded. The PM is unable to find time to hear me out. So the Madhya Pradesh shall observe a strike on March 6 in protest," Chouhan tweeted about the issue.
Chouhan has already met President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar to highlight various farmers' issues but failed to receive any central assistance so far, sources said.
Besides assistance for rain and hailstorm hit farmers, the MP CM also demanded Minimum Support Price for gram crop and also for recognising Madhya Pradesh as the Basmati rice growing state by the Geographical Indication Registry.

Chouhan said that MP farmers had no other option left, except resorting to a shut down and staging a road blockade to press the Centre for central assistance.
MP's farmers have suffered extensive crop damage because of unseasonal rains and hailstorm after which the state government decided to earmark Rs 2000 crore in the vote-on-account to be passed in the MP assembly in two days.