Apprehensive of a Mandsaur-like protest by sugarcane farmers in Narsinghpur, the Madhya Pradesh government has banned residents from posting or forwarding provocative messages on social media.
Sugarcane farmers who are not happy with the price that they are getting for their produce have been galvanising support on social media for the past one week for a soon-to-be launched protest.
According to Narsinghpur district collector Sameer Lakra, imposition of section 144 would imply ban on posting and forwarding of any message on social media that is objectionable in nature or has communal overtones.
The order has been issued under section 144 subsection 2 of the Criminal Procedure Code 1973.
According to the order issued by Lakra, the ban would be applicable on Facebook, Twitter, Hike, WhatsApp and other social media platforms and in case of groups the administrators would be held liable.
In the same order, the district collector has also banned all kinds of hoardings, banners, flags and objectionable wall writings within the revenue boundaries of Narsinghpur.
A complete ban has been imposed on sloganeering around public and private properties within the district.
According to the farmers, they are not getting a fair price for their produce and the traders have further lowered purchase price after the launch of the government’s Bhavantar scheme.
“The bhavantar scheme is ill conceived as the government claims it will transfer the difference between the selling price and the support price announced by the government directly to the farmers account. Firstly traders in connivance with government officials are bringing down their purchase prices and pocketing huge profits and secondly we do not know when the difference will actually get transferred,” an agitated farmer said.
In June 2017, six farmers were killed in police action in Mandsaur after protests turned violent. The farmers in Mandsaur were demanding a support price for onions and eventually the government was forced to purchase onions at Rs 8 per kg. Onions worth over Rs 700 crore that was purchased at the announced support price were later allowed to rot in the open.
