Madhya Pradesh yet again witnessed a farmer’s death. There are long queues at mandis (market), which take much time for the farmers to sell their crop in this soaring heat and the Government is providing no facilities to ease their burden.
In a recent case, a 38-year-old farmer, Omprakash Patidar collapsed at the mandi in Narsinghgarh, Rajgarh. The administration says that he died of a heart attack, but the family refuses to believe the same as they claim that because of waiting for three days in this heat to sell his crop at mandi, he lost his life.
The farmer’s death triggered a massive traffic jam on NH-12 with the protesters demanding better facilities and speedy process at the mandis, especially when the temperature is above 45 degrees in the state, News 18 reported.
One of the protesters, Ram Kishore, said, “The agitators on the highway were only dispersed after the administration promised to look into their demands of installing water coolers, 20 weighing machines and provision for computer-generated bills.”
This is the second death in this week where the farmer has died of no facilities, a week ago, another 65-year-old farmer, Mulchand Maina, a resident of Bijukhedi village collapsed in the agriculture market after waiting for four days to weigh and sell his crop.
His son, Narmada Prasad said, “My father had come to the Mandi to sell chana (gram) four days earlier and was waiting for the product to be weighed and sold. He collapsed on Thursday morning while still waiting for his turn,”
Sub-inspector Banwari Lal Sharma of Later police station told NDTV that Mr Maina collapsed due to the heat and strain, and died of a heart attack. Sub Divisional Magistrate, Ashok Manjhi told that Mr Mania’s family would be given a compensation of Rs. Four Lakh.
Also published on Medium.
