New Delhi: All India Kisan Congress, the farmer front of the Congress party, will start bombarding the Prime Minister's Office with demand drafts of Rs 17 from Tuesday in protest of the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme announced by Finance Minister Piyush Goyal in his budget speech on Friday.
The DD amount of Rs 17 is equal to the payout in the PM Kisan scheme when calculated on a per day basis. The scheme will provide direct income support of Rs 6,000 a year, paid out in three equal installments of Rs 2,000 each to small and marginal farmers holding cultivable land up to 2 hectares.
The payout translates to Rs 17 per day. Congress and other political parties have criticised the meagre amount, calling it an insult to farmers’ plight. The Kisan Congress said that it was sending DDs to Prime Minister Narendra Modi so he could get himself an expensive suit made from farmers' money.
“PM Modi has betrayed farmers by announcing this scheme,” said Surender Solanki, vice president of the Kisan Congress. “The amount translates to a per day income of Rs 17. A farmer can’t even buy tea for his family in that amount. A cup of tea would cost Rs 10.”
The Kisan Congress, on behalf of aggrieved farmers has prepared multiple DDs of Rs 17 that the organization will start posting to the PMO beginning Tuesday. “The Prime Minister can keep his Rs 17 with himself,” Solanki said. The Kisan Congress will also send PM Modi a letter, penned by chairman Nana Patole, raising farmers’ concerns about the scheme.
The Kisan Congress chairman, along with several farmers, will hold a press conference at All India Congress Committee office on Tuesday and move towards the Prime Minister’s Office in Raisina Hill to agitate. “We are giving the Rs 17 DD so that the Prime Minister can get a suit made from it. PM Modi wears suits worth Rs 10 lakh and is giving only Rs 17 to the entire family of a farmer. This is a cruel joke,” Patole, chairman of the Kisan Congress, said. According to him, DDs from farmers from every state will be sent to the PMO.
Solanki said it was an insult to farmers that Modi wore suits worth lakhs of rupees but could only spare Rs 17 for a farmer. “DDs from each state will be forwarded to the PMO and all Kisan Congress state in-charges are coordinating,” he said.
According to Solanki, after the budget announcement, several farmers had met the Kisan Congress chairman and asked for support. Farmers from across India will continue sending Rs 17 DDs to PM Modi after Tuesday. Kisan Congress will hold also hold a press conference in New Delhi on Tuesday in protest of the PM Kisan scheme.
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