BHOPAL, Jan 18: The death toll in the police firing on agitating farmers in Multai in Betul district of Madhya Pradesh has gone up to 18 with one person succumbing to injuries yesterday, reports received here today said. Official sources said the deceased was identified as a fire brigade driver, who was beaten up by a violent mob during the agitation.The police firing incident is now threatening to develop into a major confrontation between the ruling Congress and the opposition BJP in the state with the BJP demanding that state Chief Minister Digvijay Singh own moral responsibility for the firing.
Veteran BJP leader Sunderlal Patwa today announced that he was converting his two-day hunger strike and vow of silence into an indefinite fast, and declared these would continue until the Chief Minister tendered an unconditional apology and resigned. He began the fast on Friday as a protest against the killings.
The police had opened fire on farmers -- who were demanding compensation for damages caused to
their crops due to unseasonal rains and hailstorms -- after the agitation turned violent and the farmers indulged in stone-throwing and arson. Asked whether he was not trying to derive political benefits on the issue of the police firing, the former chief minister said he was, in fact, ``highlighting the plight of farmers'' whose crops were damaged. When pointed out that the state government had already announced financial assistance of Rs one lakh each to the families of those killed in the firing, he said loss of life could not be compensated in any manner.
Digvijay Singh, for his part, attacked the BJP for ``shedding crocodile tears'' over the incident with a view to getting political mileage in the Lok Sabha elections.
Singh, in a statement, said that when Sunderlal Patwa was chief minister in July 1991, the state government had paid a compensation of only Rs 12,000 each to the families of those who died in the police firing on labourers at Bhilai, and a meagre amount of Rs 2000 each to the injured.
And senior Congress leader and former Union agriculture minister Balram Jakhar, who visited Multai and Betul yesterday, told reporters here that the firing was ``totally avoidable''. He also described the firing as an ``administrative failure of the first order'' adding the officials present on the spot ``must be punished''. Jakhar, who turned down all suggestions of asking Digvijay Singh to resign, said the firing could have an adverse impact on Congress chances in the Lok Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh if its aftermath was not handled properly. Meanwhile, the bandh call given by the BJP in three districts evoked a mixed response today. No untoward incident was reported.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
