Jaipur: Farmers’ movement against electricity bills gains pace

Inspired from agitation against farm land acquisition, a farmer’s movement brewing in rural areas of Jaipur is gaining pace on issues of electricity and minimum support price. The agitation leaders on Monday took break from their ongoing campaign “Khet Bachao Kisan Bachao Yatra” to announce for another protest against electricity bills. 

They said the billing system was contrary to interest of farmers and warned that farmers will not pay the bills till the system is fixed.“The monthly billing cycle is not in favour of farmers as the crop make returns twice an year, thus the billing should also be biannually,” said Nagendra Singh Shekhawat, convener of the farmer movement. “If the state government do not fix the anomaly, farmers will stop payment of the bills and advance the agitation,” he added. 

If the “non-payment of power bills” reflect of Aam Aadmi Party’s agitation in Delhi, the movement in Jaipur also echos demand of ‘minimum support price of milk’ from farmer’s movement of Maharashtra. 

Even as the demands overshadow the movement that had united farmers against land acquisition, the agitation leaders deny of political ambition. “The campaign has reached 150 villages so far and in the process it was felt that power bills and minimum support price required immediate attention,” executive president of the yatra, Shiv Kumar Serawat said.