Not a single farmer died in Uttar Pradesh during the farmers’ protest that began in November 2020 against the three farm laws, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has stated.
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“Therefore, there arises no question of compensating their kin,” he said in response to a written question by Samajwadi Party MLA Ravidas Mehrotra in the Assembly.
“No farmer died in the kisan andolan [farmers agitation] in the State from November 2020,” he observed.
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Rashtriya Lok Dal president Chaudhary Jayant Singh said the basis of Mr. Adityanath’s statement was “completely erroneous.”
“I attended the funeral in Rampur of a farmer who died on January 26 (2021). Also, a farmer from Baghpat died whilst sitting at Ghazipur. A number of farmers residents of Uttar Pradesh and the Terai region were killed,” Mr. Singh told The Hindu.
‘4 farmers kin compensated’
In reply to another question asked by the same MLA, Mr. Adityanath said the kin of all the four farmers killed in Lakhimpur Kheri last October when a convoy of vehicles allegedly involving Union Minister Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish Mishra deliberately ran over them had been compensated.
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Mr. Ashish Mishra alias Monu is currently in jail and faces murder charges among others.
While two farmers were from Lakhimpur Kheri, the other two belonged to the neighbouring district Bahraich.
The farmers’ protest at the bordering districts of Delhi and the one at Tikonia in Kheri had found its way into the 2022 U.P. Assembly election campaign. The Samajwadi Party, which eventually lost, had promised that if voted to power it would withdraw all cases lodged against the protesting farmers and provide aid of ₹ 25 lakh to the family of each farmer who died in the protest.
The four farmers were among the eight killed in the incident in Tikonia on October 3, 2021.