One year after police opened fire at protesters in Madhya Pradesh's Mandsaur killing five farmers, the two commissions announced to inquire into the incident have made little progress. While one commission has been formed but is yet to submit its report, the other one has not even been formed.
The first commission was constituted to investigate the “firing on farmers”. The second, announced as the Madhya Pradesh Agriculture Cost and Marketing Commission, was tasked to improve the conditions of farmers in the state.
“This is a classic example of how the BJP government cheat people by hollow announcements. The chief minister has reduced the farmers issues to mere promises and more promises,” said Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia.
It has to be noted that families of five farmers were given Rs 1 crore each as ex-gratia and a job to the family member by the government.
Soon after the firing incident caused a furore in Madhya Pradesh, the state government had appointed a single-member Commission of Inquiry to probe the circumstances that led to the violence and police firing. Justice J.K. Jain, a former high court judge, was appointed as the chairman of the single member commission, with Indore as its headquarters. The commission was asked to probe five points given by the government and submit its report within three months from the day of publication of the notification. Circumstances under which the incident took place, whether force used by the police was reasonable, who was responsible for the incident, whether the district and police administration took appropriate steps during the incident and suggestions to stop such incidents in future were the five points emphasised by the government. The notification was issued under Commission of Inquiry Act, 1952 (60 of 1952).
The Jain commission, which was supposed to give its report on September 11, 2017, was given four extensions—first till December 11, 2017 and later to March 11, 2018 and again to May 11, 2018. However, nothing has came out yet. While Madhya Pradesh law and legislative affairs minister Rampal Singh is tight-lipped on the commission, sources said the report is ready.
On the other hand, the Madhya Pradesh Agriculture Cost and Marketing Commission, announced by chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan when he sat on a fast as a penance for the deaths of the five farmers, is yet to be constituted. The government had stated last year the commission would be for two years. With the commissioner of agriculture production and principal secretary of farmers welfare and agriculture development department as its ex-officio members, the commission's mandate was to submit three reports every year to the state government before each kharif, rabi and summer crop season.
It was announced that an eminent agriculture expert would be its chairman, but nothing has happened even after a year. The commission was supposed to make recommendations about the cost of production, beneficial pricing and marketing of agricultural produce