Yashwant Singh set to take up farmers' woes in Madhya Pradesh, join protest in Gadarwara tomorrow

Narsinghpur: After Maharashtra, BJP veteran Yashwant Sinha has now landed in another party-led state, Madhya Pradesh, to take up the cause of farmers. The former Union minister is scheduled to take part in a farmers’ protest on Thursday against an upcoming power project at Gadarwara area of Narsinghpur district. He will participate in the protest along with Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Sangh president Shivkumar Sharma, popularly known as Kakkaji, who is a former RSS ideologue. [caption id=“attachment_4242539” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Yashwant Sinha. PTI[/caption] “Just now, I received him (Sinha) in Jabalpur,” Sharma said. “After night stay at Jabalpur, we are going to leave for Narsinghpur on Thursday morning,” he added. “Sinhaji is going to address the farmers squatting at Gadarwara since 22 December,” Kakkaji said. Former Union minister Sompal Shastri, too, will take part in the protest, he said. Narsinghpur SP Monica Shukla said, “Adequate police arrangement has been made at the protest site where Sinha and Shastri are going to address the protesters. We are keeping a watch.” Kakkaji said farmers, whose lands had been acquired for the NTPC’s coal-fired project at Gadarwara, are demanding jobs in the central PSU. NTPC has promised them jobs while acquiring their agriculture lands, he added. In early December, 2017 Sinha led a farmers march in Akola district of Maharashtra and later staged a sit-in to protest the BJP-led government’s “apathy” towards the cultivators of the Vidarbha region. The 80-year-old bureaucrat-turned-politician has also been critical of the economic policies of the Modi government.