KSG began its 12-day bike yatra on Friday from Bhilad in south Gujarat to create awareness about free and fair voting during the upcoming elections.
Sagar Rabadri, secretary of Khedut Samaj, Gujarat, said on Friday that the organisation would continue with the bike yatra across Gujarat despite the police detention in Valsad on Friday.
KSG began its 12-day bike yatra on Friday from Bhilad in south Gujarat to create awareness about free and fair voting during the upcoming elections. They had sought police permission for the yatra but were denied. They persisted with it and were were detained by the Valsad police but released soon after.
"Ours is a non-political yatra. We want to educate farmers. Despite this, we were denied permission for the yatra. We will continue it as planned. Let the police detain us as many times as it wants," Rabari told DNA from Dandi, where the yatra will conduct a night halt and resume on Saturday.
Rabari said that after detention, he was getting widespread response from people. "People are angry that we were not allowed to raise our voices. People are now more sympathatic to our cause," he said. KSG President Jayesh Patel and Secretary Sagar Rabari were among a dozen odd persons who were detained in the morning.
Valsad DSP Sanjay Joshi said that the party was detained as they had conducted a rally without permission and so they were detained.
The yatra will continue for another 11 days, and terminate at Amirgadh in north Gujarat. KSG has raised 35 demands of farmers. These include removal of legal provisions that allow the government to forcefully acquire land without adequate compensation and persuing a fair procedure. They have demanded formation of Agriculture Commission in the state to take care the interests of the farmers. They want a mechanism by which the price of agricultural produce is 50 per cent higher than the total production cost. KSG said that in spite of inclusion of agricultural land in irrigation schemes, lands in many parts of the state were later on from the command area. All of them should be re-included. It is also pressing for total debt waiver of farmers in Gujarat.
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