Cong’ Dec 9 mass arrest for paddy bonus, electricity

Raipur, December 05, 2011


The Congress will court mass arrest (jail bharo andolan) across the state on December 9 with its three-point demand - Rs 270 paddy bonus for farmers, free electricity to farmers for operation of five HP pumps for irrigation purpose and curtailment in high domestic power tariffs. The party plans to stage dharna in all the 90 Vidhan Sabha from 12-4 pm followed by jail bharo andolan. The PCC president Nandkumar Patel hopes that about one lakh workers would court mass arrest on December 9. In this connection, Patel convened a meeting of PCC office-bearers including Lok Sabha incharges at Congress Bhawan on Monday. He said the senior leaders would participate in the dharna and mass arrest programmes at district headquarters.

Patel said the farmers of the state were compelled to suicide due to acute financial crisis. “The BJP government has deceived the farmers and not distributed about Rs 2287 crore bonus amount to the farmers. The farmers are heavily indebted but the government is pathetic towards them,” he added.

Patel further said that the government had not even fulfilled its promise made in its 23008 election manifesto to the farmers about provision of free electricity for irrigation (for up to five HP pumps). “Ironically, the domestic power tariffs too have increased sharply in this power surplus state,” he said.

He also slammed the BJP government protesting FDI (foreign direct investment) in retail. “Massive infrastructure will develop through FDI and there will be no role of middlemen while the maximum beneficiaries would be farmers as well as consumers,” Patel said.

He informed that that AICC treasurer Motilal Vora and CLP leader Ravindra Choubey will participate in dharna and jail bharo andolan at Durg, Vidya Charan Shukla – Mahasamund, Ajit Jogi, Rajya Sabha MP Mohsina Kidwai, Govindlal Vora and chief organiser of Seva Dal Ashok Raj Ahuja – Raipur, Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Processing Charandas Mahant – Korba and Arvind Netam – Jagdalpur. Patel would participate in the programmes at Bilaspur district.

Similarly, Satyanarayan Sharma will lead the dharna and mass arrest programmes from Rajnandgaon, Dhanendra Sahu – Gariyaband, Mahendra Karma – Dantewada, Parasram Bhardwaj and MP Ingrid McLeod – Janjgir-Champa, Pawan Diwan and PMC president Ambika Markam – Dhamtari, Pradeep Choubey – Kawardha, Dr Ramchandra Singhdeo – Koria, Kawasi Lakhma – Sukma, Pushpa Devi Singh – Raigarh, Krishna Kumar Gupta – Sarguja, Rajendra Tiwari and Swaroopchand Jain – Jashpur, Kamla Manhar and state YC president Uttam Vasudev – Mungeli, Nina Ravatia – Bijapur, Ramadhar Kashyap – Balodabazar, Somprakash Giri – Balod, Shankar Sodhi – Narayanpur, Shiv Netam – Kondagaon and Khelsai Singh – Surajpur.

Patel has asked the PCC general secretaries, who have been given the responsibility of Lok Sabha constituencies, to mandatorily present in their assigned areas.

The Congress MLAs will participate in the programmes in their respective legislative areas. Patel has give responsibility of 51 BJP dominated legislative constituencies to the secretaries. The party will also send observers in some of the Vidhan Sabha areas.

The office-bearers of YC’s Lok Sabah and Vidhan Sabha areas would participate in the programmes in their respective regions. The dharna and jail bharo andolan will also be participated by the office-bearers and workers of PMC, NSUI, Seva Dal and different morchas and cells the party.

The PCC’s Monday meeting was attended by party vice presidents Baijnath Chandrakar and Pradeep Choubey along with treasurer Ramgopal Agrawal, general secretaries - Bhupesh Baghel, Arun Vora, Subhash Sharma, Ramesh Warlyani, Chandrabhan Barmate, party’s chief spokesperson Shailesh Nitin Trivedi, etc.