VJAS urged UPA Govt. start non-GM food crop promotion policy-Demand Special Incentive to subsidies ‘Zero Budget Organic Farming ’

VJAS urged UPA Govt. start non-GM food crop promotion policy to protect National Health, Environment and Ecology- Demand Special Incentive to subsidies ‘Zero Budget Organic Farming ’In farm suicide effected districts in India.

Nagpur-31^st may 2009

New UPA Govt. with fresh mandate to govern the nation is starting it’s second term with more liberty to take firm decision but history of more than 1,00,000 farmers suicides mostly in 31 district of India which were declared as farm suicide effected district and special prime minister relief package Rs.40.000 crore followed by Rs.71,000 crore loan waiver was given to tackle agrarian crisis ,can not be forgotten more over suicide of distress farmers in farm suicide prone district is till continued and fresh debt is mounting on the farmers due to crop failure and non-sustainable farming methods .

It is understood that new UPA Govt. is giving special priority to food security and problem of poverty and hunger will be the main focus of economic agenda of new Govt. but basic reason of agrarian crisis in the country is the aggressive high cost and high risk cash crop farming with the help of G.M.(Genetically Modified) seed (in case of cotton it’s Bt.cotton seed) coupled with very toxic chemical farming which has already damaged to our forest wealth ,soil fertility and ecological balance of India hence in order to save our country from toxic food and complex health problems being imported along with Genetically Modified Seed ,VJAS has urged Indian Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh to start new agrarian policy to promote Non-GM Food Crop Promotion Policy with special incentives and subsidies to farmers who are adopting ‘Zero Budget Organic Farming ’in farm suicide effected districts in India, Kishore Tiwari president Vidarbha Janandolan Samiti (VJAS) informed in press note today.

VJAS has urged UPA Govt. ban commercial trials of all GM seeds because of it’s adverse reports of public health, environment and forest degradation are reported and evolution of toxicity of chemical and Genetically Modified Foods and vegetables is very much needed when it is banned in most of part of developed world .when developed countries are promoting organic farming for public health, it is completely unfair and unjust to allow poisonous food and vegetable in our country in name of food security ,poverty and hunger.

UPA Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar who is also food supply minister has very special interest in MNCs having monopoly in GM seed and agro-chemical manufacturing due to his wasted financial interest which is known to everybody in India hence country is at the risk of having more in flow of commercial trials of GM foods and vegetables and if toxic and poisonous seeds are not banned then in next five year, our food would be too toxic to eat and damage to our public health ,soil and forest will be so disastrous that country will not be able repair hence VJAS has humble request to Indian Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh to start non-gm food crop promotion policy to protect national health,environment and ecology and give special incentive to subsidies ‘zero budget organic farming ’in farm suicide effected districts in India

Please arrange to release this press note

Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti

kishortiwarii@gmail.com

kishortiwari.blogspot.com

contact-09422108846

Posted by VIDARBHA JAN ANDOLAN SAMITI

NAXAL CONTROL IN VIDARBHA BY MAHARASHTRA POLICE -Reports Hindustan Times

May 25, 2009

Sweta Ramanujan-Dixit, Hindustan Times

Email Author

Markegaon, May 25, 2009

First Published: 01:03 IST(25/5/2009)

Last Updated: 01:07 IST(25/5/2009)

Three months on, wife waits for detained husband

As 21-year-old Asha goes about squeezing green wedges of lime into a jar of water to make juice, she looks like any other homemaker going about her daily chores.

What does not show is the worry that plagues about her husband Rohidas Shimpi (27) who has been in police custody since the February 2009 Markegaon ambush by Naxals in which 15 policemen were killed.

The attack was similar to the one, which occurred last week near Tavitola in Dhanora barely 30 kms from Shimpi’s village. This time 16 police personnel, including five policewomen, were killed by Naxals.

Shimpi’s family claims he is innocent. “He wasn’t even in the village when the attack took place,” said Asha trying to control her jumpy seven-month old baby girl playing on a cot in the courtyard of their brick house in Markegaon, at least 60kms from Gadchiroli. “He had gone to a nearby village to administer polio drops. He was a social worker.”

Shimpi’s case is representative of the constant tussle between the police and locals with the latter accusing the former of picking up and harassing innocent villagers on the grounds that they support the Naxals.

“This has created anger and mistrust among villagers towards the police,” said a villager from Yerkad village.He requested anonymity fearing he would be targeted.

“When such attacks happen, the police pick up innocent villagers and slap cases against them. The villagers get so fed up that they feel it is better to support the Naxals.”

A total of 37 people are in custody in relation to the Markegaon case. Of these, 18 belong to Markegaon.

“The accused have been charged under section 302 (murder) of the IPC in addition to other charges,” said advocate Ravindra Donarkar who is appearing for Shimpi. “But these charges are false. These people were not present during the firing.”

The police, however, rubbish allegations that people like Shimpi were being victimized. “It is childish (to ask whether there is evidence against Shimpi),” said Pankaj Gupta, Additional Director General, Anti-Naxal Operations.

Shimpi’s family does not know the status of his case. Each trip to their lawyer’s office in Gadchiroli costs the poor at least Rs 110. “My son is going mad in jail,” said Anandabai, Shimpi’s mother. Shimpi’s bail hearing is expected to come up in the first week of June.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print.aspx?Id=3c3c6833-1ae9-4d69-ac8b-f9f677296451

© Copyright 2007 Hindustan Times

Vidarbha farmers to protest reassignment Agriculture and PDS Ministry to Sharad Pawar :”It’s unfortunate decision” –VJAS

Nagpur-May 24th 2009

Vidarbha Jan andolan Samiti (VJAS) activist group working for dying cotton farmers of west vidarbha has termed the reassignment of NCP Chief Sharad Pawar as agriculture and public distribution system(PDS) as unfortunate. Vidarbha cotton farmers are strongly protesting the decision of Indian Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh to give important agriculture and public distribution system(PDS) ministry portfolio to NCP Chief Sharad Pawar whose party has been totally rejected by not only cotton farmers of vidarbha and marathwada but his own sugarcane farmers in Western Maharashtra. Initially it was told that after humiliating defeat Sharad Pawar will not take ministry in new UPA govt. but after his induction in union cabinet farmers and poor were once again threaten as in last UPA five year region Sharad Pawar was too busy in cricket to visit the single farmer’s family who committed suicide even after more than 5230 cotton farmers suicide in West Vidarbha. Sharad Pawar’s keen interest in IPL-BCCI was very much matter of discussion as per report of international daily Asia Times in feb,2009 and

I quote

“The Indian government's lackadaisical approach to agricultural problems is best exemplified in Agriculture Minister Pawar finding time to be president of the Board of Control of Cricket in India. A minister handling one of the three most important portfolios in the union cabinet moonlighting as a busy sports administrator and frequently traveling abroad to see cricket matches might have been cause for scandal in some other countries, but not yet in India. Worse, Pawar's home state is Maharashtra, the epicenter of farmer suicides in India”

India's growing agrarian crisis has also been attributed to farmers being lured to give up traditional farming methods and use expensive genetically modified seeds, such as the controversial Bt cotton seeds, pesticides and fertilizers, with disastrous results.
Successive Indian governments have failed to execute land reforms to enable small farmers to own tilling land. NREG ignores these core issues. More damningly, NREG has not stopped indebted farmers killing themselves. Over 10,000 cotton-growing farmers have committed suicide since 2004 in Vidharba district, Maharashtra, due to individual debt sometimes amounting to $250. Over 100,000 farmers have killed themselves since 1993, a number acknowledged in Parliament by India's agriculture minister, Sharad Pawar.

Rural poverty is the looming dark side of the "India Rising" economic story, and agriculture comprises 18% of India's gross domestic product; 65% of India's population live in villages, and the agriculture sector is facing critical challenges, such as from cheaper imported farm produce as the Indian economy has opened to global competition.

UNQUOTE

As country agrarian crisis is at it’s peak India needs very sensitive and responsible minister looking after the Agriculture Ministry full time more over we need non-corrupt minister to look after PDS portfolio as there was massive scam in wheat import which has discredited UPA govt. performance and become election issue of BJP campaign hence allotment of Agriculture and PDS Ministry to Sharad Pawar is nothing but invitation more farm suicides in India hence in order to save billions of dying farmers of Indian Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh has been urged not to change the portfolio of Sharad Pawar and arrange to give Sport Ministry in charge IPL-BCCI allowing him operate from headquarter of BCCI Mumbai , tiwari added.

Please release this pres note

Thanking you,

Yours faithfully,

For VIDARBHA JAN ANDOLAN SAMITI

KISHORE TIWARI

PRESIDENT

kishortiwari@gmail.com

contact-09422108846

Posted by PLEASE SAVE VIDARBHA FARMER

Prosperous farmers hold key to India's election-Reuters

Prosperous farmers hold key to India's election

Sun May 10, 2009 3:32am EDT

Krittivas Mukherjee

RAMBHA, India (Reuters) - Five years ago, India's rural poor threw out the incumbent Hindu nationalist-led government because the slogan of "India Shining" was seen to work only for the urban middle class.

The tables have been turned in the current general election, with large parts of the countryside prospering while urban Indians grapple with the fallout from a global slowdown.

"Life is good, can't complain much," smiles Sahab Singh, a 38-year-old wheat-and-paddy grower, standing arms akimbo in the middle of his 105-acre field in the northern state of Haryana, not far from the capital New Delhi.

He is not the cliched image of an Indian farmer. He is rich, his children go to school in a car and his house is large.

Good rains, government financial assistance and a rural economic boom have put more money in the pockets of millions of farmers over the past five years, spurring sales of motorbikes and mobile phones in a sector accounting for almost two thirds of India's population of more than a billion.

The farm vote may hold the key in the general election, where the relatively new rural prosperity could reap votes for the ruling Congress-led alliance as it battles the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party-led opposition.

"Despite the (global) economic slowdown, sales of fast-moving consumer goods have been rising briskly, especially in small towns and rural areas. This is hard evidence of rural prosperity," political economist Swaminathan Anklesaria Aiyar wrote in the Times of India newspaper.

"On balance, the Congress is not badly placed. Even if it loses some seats, it could emerge as the largest single party."

In the absence of an outright majority, as seems likely when votes from the month-long poll are counted on May 16, the party with the highest number of seats in the new parliament is invited to form a government.

The Congress, which ruled India for almost 40 out of 60 years following independence from Britain in 1947, has traditionally had strong support in the countryside. But in recent years, with the emergence of regional and caste-based parties, it has lost that base, throwing open the battle for the rural vote.

SENSITIVE

To boost rural incomes, the Congress government has waived farm loan repayments, increased the price at which it buys foodgrains from farmers and enacted a law giving a guaranteed 100 days paid labor a year for one adult from each rural family.

"The farming community thinks the Congress has showed more sensitivity. This sentiment will be reflected in their vote," said Kishore Tewari, leader of a farmers' lobby in the western Maharashtra state.

Rural consumers have driven sales. Cement sales have grown at near double-digit rates since November, consumer goods sales also saw support from rural markets and demand for automobiles has firmed after a disastrous December quarter.

In Sahab Singh's house, signs of prosperity abound. His children wear brand-named trainers and expensive sunglasses, the family watches Bollywood films on a big LCD television and he treats guests to crepes and single malt whisky.

Even in the cotton-growing belt of western India, where poverty is endemic, there is recognition of government action.

"The loan waiver and increased MSP (minimum support price for crops) have ensured that farmers get decent incomes, so they are supportive of UPA government," said Anup Jagtap, a cotton and soybean grower, referring to the Congress-led coalition.

If there is a downside, it will be the impact of such fiscal profligacy over the longer term. If the Congress wins on the back of the rural vote, it will have to keep pumping money into the farming sector despite the strain on public finances.

The rural schemes are estimated to have partly pushed up India's consolidated fiscal deficit to about 10 percent of GDP, the highest in years amid a wider economic slowdown.

The other concern is the uneven nature of rural prosperity.

Small farmers and workers continue to complain of a lack of finance, irrigation is a problem and there is corruption even in the distribution of subsidized seeds. Marginal farmers and farm workers are worst hit.

"The Congress party can benefit only in those states where its political machinery can claim credit for its schemes," said political commentator Pratap Bhanu Mehta.

© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved

National election 2009-VJAS demands “bar coding” and inter mixing of all EVMs

National election 2009-VJAS demands “bar coding” and inter mixing of all EVMs before counting in order to keep election confidential

Nagpur –May 6, 2009

Election commission of India has modified counting process of votes given through EVMs by introducing cross verification and recounting of EVMs at random by counting officers to check correctness of counting to avoid frauds but EC has failed to introduce any method of keeping the confidentiality of EVM to protect and safe guard the interest of voter of that polling station as in last all election conducted by EC by using EVM ,concern election in charge has made all voting details to public via news paper that has created lot of hardship to tribal,dalit and minorities voters in particular as they were victimised due to vendetta and EC failed to keep the voter’s voting right as confidential and secret hence in petition filed before Chief Election Commission Of India (CEC) Kishore Tiwari President Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti has prayed that after first round of EVM vote count ,all EVM should be given fresh bar code before the all party representative and should be mixed in entire parliament constituency that will keep election process as secret and impartial and will result in free and fare election too.

In last 2004 Loksabha election as election result was declare EVM wise that has reflected very badly in next 2004 assembly election Maharashtra as political parties targeted kolam pod ,dalit wasti and specific communities went against them in voting and they were threaten and tortured get the voting done in their favor hence there is complete change in voting pattern in these polling station changing the result of assembly constituency and practices adopted by the candidates were unfair and corrupt making mockery of free and fair election,tiwari added petition .

“I can understand political parties who are promoting only corruption since 1950 ,voter is not expecting any protection as per secrecy and confidentiality of voting is protected but he can expect some justice from Chief Election Commission Of India (CEC) who is custodian of free and fair election in India hence we have moved this petition in order to protect human rights of our tribal,dalit and minorities being frozen after the result as part of vendetta of voting against the order of gram mukhiya or community panchayat”tiwari added.

.

Please release this pres note

Thanking you,

Yours faithfully, For VIDARBHA JAN ANDOLAN SAMlTI

KISHORE TIWARI

PRESIDENT

kishortiwari@gmail.com

contact-09422108846

lacs of tribal tendu leaves workers till denied tendu bonus