Issue of farmers and traders may spoil BJP’s victory plan in Madhya Pradesh

New Delhi: As political leaders — ‘burdened’ with the responsibilities of securing victory for their parties —have started crisscrossing the poll-bound states, the resentment among farmers and traders over the issue of revision of mandi tax and better price of agriculture produce may play a spoilsport for the ruling party

in winning the Madhya Pradesh Assembly election for the fifth time.

Besides Madhya Pradesh, the issues of “non-fulfillment” of promises being made for the welfare of farmers by the ruling parties have become a cause of concern for political parties in the states of Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Telangana. Amid all these apprehensions, the farmers and traders in Chhattisgarh have not yet come out with any opposition plan

against the ruling government which is led by Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel.

In Madhya Pradesh, the government led by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had promised to reduce the mandi tax from existing 1.7 per cent to 0.5 per cent. However, with just a few days in hand as the poll dates for Assembly election may be announced anytime in the first or second week of October, the farmers and traders are quite worried about the non-issuance of any official communiqué in this regard.

While talking to Millennium Post, Indore-based Sanjay Agarwal, who is president of Grain Oilseed Traders Association, Indore, said: “The state government had promised to reduce the mandi tax, but they have not yet released any notification. We have demanded to reduce the mandi tax to 50 paise on per purchase of Rs 100, which is being charged Rs 1.70. We have also demanded the renewal of the lease, which is pending for many years.” “It’s not the question of supporting or opposing any party. The farmers and traders want their grievances to be addressed and whoever tries to resolve these issues, they may get the support of the community,” he said.

The traders have also pushed their demand to revoke the 2009 model of mandi renewal system and restore the lease rent rules of 2005.

They have also demanded replication of industrial area rules for mandi and removal of Collector Guidelines that prohibits transfer of mandis to new mandis as due to the existence of Collector Guidelines, traders face 10 per cent lease rent increase every year.