THE Kisan Sabha in West Bengal will adopt new ways to develop militant struggles of the peasantry. The state conference of the AIKS, after intensive discussion on the rural situation in the state, has called for new methods to deal with new emerging dangers in the countryside.

Addressing the public meeting and the delegate session, Surjyakanta Misra, AIKS leader and CPI(M) state secretary emphasised on local level struggles. He said, firstly we will have to build up struggle within the village to achieve local level demands. Then the level of struggle will be upgraded towards state-wide protest.

What Misra said was emphasised in the discussions too. AIKS has decided to conduct survey in villages to know the actual details of beneficiaries of government projects. Krishak Sabha will take up the problems of families of migrant rural workers, millions of whom are now venturing out for jobs. AIKS will fight to defend two distinct institutions of rural Bengal – panchayats and co-operatives. Both these important institutions are now being destroyed by the TMC government.

Surjyakanta Misra, addressing the conference, referred to new developments in international and national socio-economic matrix and said, these have their effects on the lives of peasants and agricultural workers too. But they must be made conscious of the process.

The conference listened to numerous experiences of sufferings of peasantry in Bengal today. They are not getting remunerative prices for products, in fact, not even minimum support price. The government efforts to buy paddy has become a farce. The potato growers are selling their produces at unbelievably low prices. The conference also took stock of the rampant loot of land, led by TMC-backed mafia. The recent protest and death in police firing in Bhangar is a stark example of how lands are being snatched even without applying the criterion related to land acquisition.

AIKS state conference, organised in Bishnupur of Bankura district, started with a massive rally. Thousands of people marched into the town, defeating the terror-stricken atmosphere, prevailing in the area.

Addressing this rally, AIKS general secretary Hannan Mollah strongly criticised the policies of Modi government which have exponentially increased farmers’ suicides in the country. Modi betrayed the peasants and refused to implement their election promises to the farmers. BJP state governments are going ahead with land grab.

AIAWU general secretary A Vijayaraghavan, while addressing the delegate session, emphasised that agricultural workers should be organised on the issues of job, wages and social security. They can be potential militant fighters in the struggle to restore democracy in West Bengal.

A separate organisation of agricultural workers has been formed in this conference. West Bengal state committee of AIAWU has been elected with Tushar Ghosh as president and Amiya Patra as secretary. The conference elected Nripen Choudhury as president and Amal Halder as secretary of AIKS state committee.