Pilibhit, April 4 (Inditop.com) Congress leader and Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan chief V.M. Singh, who has been leading a farmers’ movement in Uttar Pradesh over the past few years, was arrested from Rahulpur village in Pilibhit district early Sunday morning.
Singh, who had proposed to launch a protest demonstration Sunday against the Mayawati government’s “farmer-unfriendly wheat procurement policy” and the “large scale pilferage” in the procurement process which started April 1, was charged with links with a locally active Maoist group operating under the banner of the Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist (CPI-ML).
Among the other charges levelled against Singh were “dacoity” and “obstructing government activity”.
“I have been framed simply because of my opposition to the state government’s wheat procurement policy, which was designed in a way to leave enough loopholes for large scale pilferage of funds,” Singh told IANS over telephone shortly before being sent to the Pilibhit jail.
On the charge of Maoist links, he said: “I had succeeded in persuading a large section of the CPI-ML to give up militancy and join the mainstream. My arrest is bound to give a boost to the militant group, who were terribly sore at my efforts to wean away the sensible lot from them.”
Pilibhit Superintendent of Police Ashok Raghav, however, said: “V.M. Singh’s actions were subversive of law and posing a threat to peace and public order. Hence he was arrested and sent to jail.”
Singh shot off a letter April 1 to Chief Minister Mayawati to draw her attention to the “faulty” procurement system and the “low procurement price” for wheat, terming Rs.1,080 per quintal “far too low and impractical”.
“I fail to understand why the procurement price had not been increased over last year’s price when the production cost has gone up substantially.”
He noted that even last year “loopholes and rampant corruption in the procurement process led to open exploitation of the farmer, who was forced to sell his produce at Rs.850 to Rs.900 per quintal, that was nearly Rs.200 lower than the procurement price. I am sure the same story was bound to be repeated this time.”
Singh, who had contested against his nephew and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Varun Gandhi in the April-May 2009 general elections, had then shot into the spotlight as the richest candidate in the election fray. His declared assets were of the order of Rs.640 crore.
rounak