Gujarat: Bharatiya Kisan Sangh calls for a bandh against govt on Monday

Gandhinagar, Sep 5 (IANS) The members of the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) have given a call for a 'bandh' in Gujarat's state capital Gandhinagar on Monday.

Since the past week, the BKS members are protesting and demanding the state government to address the pending issues of farmers in Gujarat.

However, till date the state government has neither called the BKS leaders for a dialogue nor made any promise to address the demands made by farmers.

Gujarat BKS General Secretary, Ramesh Patel told IANS, "We are appealing to people and traders of Gandhinagar and rural areas to extend support to the farmers' call for a bandh on Monday. As the BKS does not have a huge support base in Gandhinagar, there is no plan to block roads towards the city or even the state Secretariat. The bandh will remain strictly limited to trade and business."

The main demand of the BKS is that agriculture consumers, be it those with horsepower connections or metre connections should be charged the same tariff, however, the various present tariffs are discriminating. The farmers are also demanding power supply for 12 hours.

Reminding the history of farmers' protest of 1987, state BKS President Jagmal Arya has threatened that in 1987, BJP stood with the BKS while the Congress was in power in the state. The Congress misused power and 18 farmers died during police firing and still it is fighting to return to power in the state, he added.

If the BJP did not heed to the demands of the farmers', BJP too will have to face the same consequences as the Congress, Arya said.