GULBARGA: The All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), affiliated to the CPI(M), has decided to hold countrywide Kisan Jathas from November 4 and hold a convention of farmers in New Delhi on November 20 to highlight the agrarian crisis and alarming increase in suicides of farmers.

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, Karnataka Pranta Raita Sangha president Maruti Manpade, who is also the State secretariat member of the CPI(M), said four jathas of farmers would begin from Kanyakumari (on November 4), Tripura (November 5), Mumbai (November 11) and from Jammu and Kashmir (on November 12).

He said the jathas, covering all States and major towns and cities, would converge at New Delhi on November 20 for a convention in which more than three lakh farmers were expected to participate.

Mr. Manpade said the jatha would demand that the Government implement the recommendations of the M.S. Swaminthan Committee report in toto to reverse the anti-farmer policies and provide relief to the farmers.

He said the convention would place a 11-point charter of demands to the Union Government, which included increasing public investment in agriculture sector, ensuring remunerative prices for farm produce, changing the policy to fix the Minimum Support Price and bringing all farmers under the credit coverage of cooperative societies and nationalised banks.

Agriculture policy

Mr. Manpade also urged the State Government to hold discussions with all farmers' organisations and agriculture experts and frame a comprehensive agriculture policy for the State.

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