Harish Rawat stages dharna outside Uttarakhand assembly against non-payment of dues to sugarcane farmers

Former Uttarakhand Chief Minister and Congress general secretary Harish Rawat staged a protest outside the state assembly along with party workers against the non-payment of dues of sugarcane farmers of the state and general plight of farming community in the entire state, on Thursday.

The issue of non-payment of dues of sugarcane farmers was also raised by Congress legislators in state assembly on the second day of the Winter Session on Thursday in Dehradun.

Harish Rawat, along with senior party leaders, started his dharna at the barricades which were put up near the state assembly. Talking to media persons on the occasion, Harish Rawat said that the present state BJP government headed by Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat was “anti-farmer and anti-people.”

He contended that while the dues of sugarcane farmers have not yet been paid, putting them under tremendous stress, the overall situation of the farming sector particularly in the hilly areas had gone from bad to worse.

He alleged that all the schemes launched by his government which benefitted poor and marginal farmers in the hills had been closed down by the present BJP government.

Earlier on the opening day of the Winter Session of the state assembly on Wednesday, Harish Rawat held a dharna at Gairsain in Chamoli district in protest against the state government’s decision not to hold the Winter Session at Gairsain. He had demanded that Winter Session of the state assembly should be held at the new assembly building at Gairsain.

However, the state Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat had argued that legislators and officials would be put to a lot of inconvenience due to intense cold conditions at Gairsain and it was not feasible to hold the Winter Session there.

Rawat responded that the state government, instead of sharing the woes of the people of the hills, was making lame excuses. He advised the BJP leaders to brave winter weather like the common people and not run away from the ground realities of the state.