Page 154 - SocialHarmony

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Happy Villages can Make the Nation
Prosperous

(The government is committed to the development of
villages – the progress of villages is the progress of the

state. Banaskantha. April 26, 2002)

In these times of development, farmers should get proper
returns for their hard work. In the past, farmers were exploited
by middlemen and often forced to sell off their crops at rock-
bottom prices, which were not even sufficient to cover their own
labour. We can imagine how difficult this would have made
their lives.

The State Government is making a lot of efforts to save
farmers from exploitation. Farmers were facing numerous
problems in spite of being the owner of their own land. We
have finally won the fight for farmers’ rights against the Central
Government. Farmers have finally received the money for crop
insurance, which they were not getting since 1985. Previous
governments used to make up tall stories about the ‘Government
for poor,’ giving many promises but not delivering on them. It
was indeed strange that family members of those who died after
consuming hooch or during riots were paid compensation by
the government, but the family of a farmer who died while
digging in his fields or of snakebite while tending to his crops,
did not get a single penny. Isn’t this a gross injustice to farmers?
There is nobody to support the farmer who works day and night
to fill the state’s granaries. What could be worse than this? I
thought that when farmers meet with big or small accidents