Farmers asked to cut crops for Modi visit

A controversy has raged over farmers in Sehore district of Madhya Pradesh being allegedly ordered by government officials to cut their standing crops to make way for a venue where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to be felicitated for his new crop insurance scheme.
The furore started even as Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh was busy meeting party MPs in Delhi, asking them to spread the message about the government’s pro-farmer measures among the public. Radha Mohan Singh hadsbeen meeting his party MPs in batches and telling them about the initiatives taken up by the Ministry in the farmers’ interest. The MPs are being apprised so that they can convey the information to the party cadre and people in their constituencies.
Notably, Singh, during one of the BJP meetings, had raised the issue of opaqueness in conveying information, pointing out that party workers were not being kept in the loop about the initiatives of the government. A leading TV channel from India reported that farmers in Sherpur village of the BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh alleged that they had been asked to cut their standing crops prematurely to make way for people to reach the venue where Prime Minister Narendra .Modi is expected to be felicitated for his new crop insurance scheme on February 18. The BJP has denied the allegation.
“An official asked me to chop down my green blade. This will inflict lakhs of rupees of loss on me,” alleged farmer Suresh Parmar (45) of Sherpur village. “I am going to be left in penury,” he rued. Parmar’s brothers Dashrath Parmar and Rajesh Parmar said the family owned more than five acres of land on which they had sown wheat.
“We have laboured hard and were waiting to reap the crop, but the authorities have asked us to chop it off when it is not yet ripe,” they alleged.
Denying the allegations, BJP vice-president Vinay Sahastrabuddhe said, “Nobody’s crop has been damaged.” Madhya Pradesh Farmers’ Welfare Minister Gourishanker Bisen had told reporters that no farmer had been asked to chop his crop.