JAIPUR: The "Mahapadav" (siege) organised by farmers agitating for an early release of water into the Indira Gandhi Canal system for sowing of rabi crops continued for the second day on Wednesday in Gharsana town of Sriganganagar in northwest Rajasthan.

Unlike the previous day when the siege coincided with roadblocks in the districts of Sriganganagar, Hanumangarh and Bikaner, the day passed off peacefully in the whole region.

No arrests were made during the day and the authorities did not make any attempt to curb the movement of farmers who held meetings at the venue of the siege.

There is a widespread feeling that the provocation for the previous day's violence was police attempts to intimidate farmers in the villages against joining the "padav" and also the preventive arrests of senior leaders of the movement. "We are sitting here till a decision on our demands is taken. At any given time there are 2,500 persons present in the padav," said Bhuramal Swami, member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) State Committee, talking to The Hindu on phone from Gharsana in the evening.

The farmers under the banner of Kisan Mazdoor Vyapari Sangarsh Samiti, a non-political organisation, are also demanding a "sincere" implementation of the agreement reached between them and the Government in the wake of the violent agitation in the year 2004. "The State Government has no respect for peaceful agitations. The attempts at suppressing the farmers agitation only had resulted in bloodshed in Gharsana and Raola and in Sohela in the past," Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee spokesperson, Param Navdeep Singh said in a statement here.

She asked the Government to open a dialogue with the agitating farmers and, as a pacifying gesture, for release of those arrested.

The Government on its part has denied any violation of the agreement signed between it and the farmers on December 11, 2004. Talking to journalists on Wednesday, Water Resources Minister Sanwarlal Jat said Phase I areas, divided into four groups, were being given water by turns and any out-of-turn release would affect another group.

"There is adequate availability of water and it is a matter of waiting for your turn," he said.

Mr. Jat was not specific about the Government's willingness to open a dialogue. He said in the first place there was no reason for the farmers of the Phase I area to agitate as they were being provided 5.23 cusecs of water per 1,000 hectares.

The farmers' leaders, Hetram Beniwal, Vallabh Kochar and Sahibram Punia, who had signed the agreement, were also members of the committee formed thereafter to monitor the distribution of water, but they had boycotted all the meetings of the committee in the past, he pointed out. "What they are indulging in now is pressure tactics," he charged.

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