SHIMLA: Thousands of farmers under the banner of  Syunkt Kisan Manch (SKM) of 29 farmers’ organisations from across the state on August 5 staged a massive protest "Akrosh Rally" march from Nav Bahar Chowk near Sanjauli to Himachal Pradesh Secretariate at Chota  Shimla  to push up their long pending charter of 20-point demands  with the Jai Ram Thakur  state government.

Carrying banners and placards, a massive number of apple and vegetable farmers including women gathered at Nav Bahar here for the protest march, flagging their 20-point charter of demands to the state government for immediate action.  

Not only this, apple farmers took to the social media that sent  pictures and videos of the protest rally viral in the apple farmers' groups and families across the state. 

Had it not been apple season, the rally crowd would have been unprecedented, said the SKM leaders.  

Cutting across the party lines, thousands of farmers zeroed in on Shimla from all over the apple belt of Rohru, Nawar, Jubbal-Kotkhai, Theog,  Chopal, Rampur, Kinnaur, Anni, Kullu, Seraj, Karsog, Churag and other places  to join  SKM's protest rally in support of their 20- point charter of demands,  which has been already submitted to the state government earlier.

The farmers were forced to take to the streets in the midst of the harvesting season, when they were supposed to be in their orchards, to wake up the government to the long- standing crisis that the farmers are facing due to meteroic rise in cost of production.  

As soon as the rally crowd hit the two-layered barricades at Secretariate, just 150 m away from the Chief Minister’s office, the farmers turn restive that sent  tempers high.

The farmers jostled with the heavy police force deployed to prevent untoward incident near the Secretariate.

Many farmers sustained bruises and some of them crossing the barricade were detained at the Chhota Shimla police station.  

It was this time when Theog MLA and senior CPIM leader Rakesh Singha  came forward and led the rally from the front, pacifying the agitated farmers not to break the barricades and he managed to keep the rally peaceful.

The traffic came to stand still on Nav Bahar-Chhota Shimla stretch of the Highway from 10:30 AM till 6:00 PM till the SKM called off six-hours long siege at the Secretariate.   The traffic was diverted on the  Bypass and link roads to avoid public inconvenience,  with DGP Kundu personally supervising the Police Bandobast during the protest.      

Except for the few BJP leaders including  younger leaders Chetan Bragta, Prashant Deshta, Vishal Chauhan from the apple belt, most of leaders from Congress, CPM, AAP  joined SKM- led protest that gave a big jolt to the state government ahead of the state assembly polls.

SKM convenor Harish Chauhan and co-convenor  Sanjay Chauhan, former Shimla Mayor and CPIM leader  and other farmers leaders addressed the rally and termed the Jai Ram Thakur government insensitive to the demands of the farmers.   

Himachal Congress co-incharge  Sanjay Dutt, Jubbal and Kotkhai MLA Rohit Thakur, Rohru MLA Mohan Lal Brakta, former deputy Mayor Harish Janartha,   AAP leaders Aninder Singh Nati, Gaurav Sharma, Chaman Rakesh Azta joined SKM march to the Secretariate in support of the apple farmers. 

They said the farmers are getting the same prices for the apple  which they used to get 10 years ago whereas the inputs cost of production  of  apple  has surged more than trebled in this period.      

Singha said Apple is the pride of Himachal, but due to insensitive governments have  turned a blind eye to it, the apple economy has been pushed into a huge crisis.

It was a gift to the people  that has earned Himachal as an apple state of India. But this gift has been in dire straits due to the insensitive governments and farmers have come to the streets to protect this gift, he said.  

Shouting slogans on the way to the Secretariate, apple  farmers ventilated their anger over the meteoric rise in cost of production of the apple that has made the apple farming a losing profession for the lakh of  unemployed youth who were looking back to farm for survival in the post-Covid recovery period.

SKM has become a rallying point for the farmers. Its convenor Harish Chauhan, who has been a BJP worker for over 30 years and Sanjay Chauhan, a former Shimla Mayor and CPIM leader and farmers representing over 27 farmers bodies have come on a single platform for the first time giving sleepless nights to the government.

It was after three hours long of siege at the barricade that the SKM delegation was invited for talks inside the Secretariate.

Leading the delegation was SKM leader Harish Chauhan, Sanjay Chauhan, Rakesh Singha, Rohit Thakur, Mohan Lal Brakta, Himachal Kisan Sabha president Dr Kuldeep Singh Tanwar, AAP farmer leader Aninder Singh.

But SKM said that the major demands of the farmers including - MIS scheme for all crops- including  Rs 60 per kg for Grade A ,Rs 44 for  B and Rs 24 per kg for C grade Apples remain unaddressed.   The government was beating around the bush, they rued.

They say that the orders of the state government are yet to be replicated on the ground. So far these remain an eyewash as farmers continue to suffer as the prices of apples have come down by over Rs 1000 par carton in Mandis even as peak season is yet to start, they said.

On the other hand chairperson HP state cooperative bank and former Rohru BJP MLA Khushi Ram Balnatah accompanied by BJP leaders Naresh Sharma,  Chetan Bragta, Karan Nanda, Prashan Deshta, Vishal Chauhan termed the protest as politically motivated.

Balnatah said the SKM should not take to streets but join talks to resolve the issues of the farmers.    

He cited the steps that the Jai Ram Thakur government had taken for the welfare of apple farmers.     

He said government has constituted committee  under the chairmanship Chief secretary RD Dhiman to address the issues of the farmers.

The government has also constituted another committee under  Vice-Chancellor Dr. Yashwant Singh Parmar University Nauni to oversee the process of fixing the price of apples taken in private CA stores.

He claimed that orders have been given to the Horticulture Department to strictly implement the provision of keeping apples of farmers in all private CA stores in the state as per the MoU.

The process of setting up Horticulture Board for horticulture development in the state is in progress, Balnatah said.