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Rajasthan farmers on the warpath

Special Correspondent

Demand to release leaders from jail

JAIPUR: The farmers of the Indira Gandhi Canal Phase I continued their "Mahapadav" (siege) in Gharsana town of Rajasthan's Sriganganagar district for the fourth day on Friday. The previous evening's talks with the leaders of the Kisan Mazdoor Vyapari Sangarsh Samiti (KMVSS) and the officials, initiated at the Divisional Commissioner level, failed with the farmers' representatives demanding release of two of their top leaders from jails prior to the talks.

"Now we are getting ready for a march to the offices of the Sub Divisional Magistrates in many towns in the area simultaneously, scheduled for next Monday," said Vasudev, State secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), talking to The Hindu on phone from Gharsana. "The talks failed because we categorically told the authorities that for an agreement on the basic issue of irrigation water Hetram Beniwal and Sahibram Punia should be released."

Indications are that the proposed October 16 offensive, which is planned in towns of Gharsana, Kajuwala, Lunkaransar, Rawatsar and others falling in the districts of Bikaner, Sriganganagar and Hanumangarh, could be a major challenge for the State Government on the law and order front. "For the past two years the Government did not bother to implement the accord reached with the farmers on December 11, 2004. The farmers have no alternative but protest whichever way they can," said Amra Ram, CPI (M) MLA, talking from the "Mahapadav" venue.

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