Cuttack: Demanding scrapping of elections, a large number of farmers, including women under the aegis of Naba Nirman Krushak Sangathan (NNKS) on Sunday staged demonstration in front of Bhubananada Engineering College in a bid to stop the movement of polling party officials to different booths.
The NNKS has been agitating in Odisha demanding price, prestige and pension for farmers which include Rs 2,930 minimum support price (MSP) for paddy and Rs 5,000 monthly pension.
They alleged that the leaders did not listen to their demands and went to polls.
The agitators, led by NNKS president Akshya Kumar, staged the demonstration in front of the college by sitting and sleeping on the road under the scorching heat to prevent the polling party officials from coming out of the institute for their destinations to conduct the second phase elections to be held on April 23.
A scuffle was also ensued between the agitators and police. A group of agitating farmers were also detained by the police.
On April 10 too, at least 60 farmers were arrested for forcibly trying to enter the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) to lodge a complaint against political parties accusing them of neglecting farmers.
Earlier, the outfit had also sought permission from the CEO to take out a rally across Odisha in April to encourage people to boycott elections accusing that no political parties are sensitive towards farmers and only come to them during elections.
