Search the Internet          Tips

Left parties observe bandh in Bihar

The Left parties have called for a Bihar bandh Wednesday to protest against the Centre's discriminatory attitude towards the state's farmers.

The Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India-Marxist, Communist Party of India-Marxist-Lenninist, RSPI, SUCI, MCPI and Forward Bloc are supporting the bandh. Initial reports say that the bandh is peaceful and no untoward incident has been reported.

The bandh supporters are targeting road and rail traffic. Many schools in the state capital have been closed.

The bandh follows a three-day road and rail blockade in the first week of January by thousands of farmers in western Bihar. All trains on Howrah-Delhi Grand Chord Route and vehicles on Grand Trunk Road entering Bihar from Uttar Pradesh were stopped.

The farmers are protesting against the dumping of thousands of tonnes of paddy from Punjab and Haryana into Bihar, when the state too has had a bumper crop. They also demanded the purchase of their paddy by the Food Corporation of India.

The three-day rail-road-roko had the backing of Bihar's Minister of Water Resources Jagtanand Singh.

Wednesday's bandh call by the Left parties came a shot in arm to the Rashtriya Janata Dal which till date has been waging a lone battle against the Food Corporation of India.

Ironically, late last December, Union Agriculture Minister Nitish Kumar sat on a day-long dharna in Patna blaming the state government for it's failure to rescue the farmers. In fact Kumar's strategy was to distract the attention of the farmers, who are convinced that they were let down by the Union agriculture ministry. He met with no success since the farmers blame the FCI for their woes.

In some rural areas of Bihar, farmers were making distress sale of paddy at Rs 3 a kg while the procurement price fixed by the government is Rs 5.30.

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report