India / Rahul shares list of farmers killed in protests, demands compensation

New Delhi: Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday asked the Union Government to provide compensation and jobs for the next of kin of farmers who died during the year-long agitation against the three farm laws on the borders of the national capital.

Mr Gandhi, who had unsuccessfully moved an adjournment motion on the farmers’ issue, tabled a list in Lok Sabha of deceased farmers whose families were given compensation and employment by the Punjab government

Demanding a statement from the government on the issue, Congress members along with DMK and NCP colleagues walked out of the House while raising slogans against the government.

“Around 700 farmers died in farmers’ agitation. The Prime Minister apologised to the farmers and accepted his mistake. On November 30, Agriculture Minister was asked a question — ‘how many farmers died in the agitation? Agriculture Minister said he had no data. We found out that Punjab government has paid compensation of ₹5 lakh each to more than 400 farmers. Of these 400 farmers, 152 have also been given jobs. I have one more list of 70 farmers from Haryana,” Mr. Gandhi said.

“The Prime Minister had apologised and your government is saying that no farmer has died or you do not have the list of farmers. These are the names here. I want that the farmers be given their rights. Now, farmers should get compensation and jobs,” the former Congress president said.

Separately, Mr Gandhi had also asked an unstarred question about whether deceased farmers will receive compensation, their demands for minimum support price (MSP) and the impact of COVID -19 pandemic on agriculture.

“They swallowed the first two questions and the answer to the third one is ‘agriculture functioned smoothly during the pandemic What a joke!” Mr. Gandhi tweeted along with the written reply given by Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar.