Virtually rejecting Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis assurance of coming up with the 'biggest farm loan waiver in history, farmers groups on Thursday served a two-day ultimatum to the Maharashtra government to accept their demands, failing which they
Devendra Fadnavis
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Virtually rejecting Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis assurance of coming up with the 'biggest farm loan waiver in history, farmers groups on Thursday served a two-day ultimatum to the Maharashtra government to accept their demands, failing which they threatened the agitation would be intensified with a 'rail blockade next Tuesday.
Announcing their plans at a full meeting of the Kisan Kranti's Core Committee in Nashik on Thursday evening, farmers leaders like Anil Nawale, state general secretary of All India Kisan Sabha, said if the government failed to heed the two-day ultimatum, farmers would take out morchas to collectorates and government offices in all districts on Monday, followed by a state-wide rail-roko and road-blocks the following day.
Top farmers leaders, including ruling ally Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana's Raju Shetti, Omprakash Babarao alias Bacchu Kadu, Raghunathdada Patil, Trade Unions Joint Action Committee (Maharashtra) Convenor Vishwas Utagi and others spoke on the occasion.
Stating that farmers in several states are agitating, Shetti urged the farmers to carry out "such an agitation that Delhi should tremble" before them, and indicated that his party would soon walk out of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led alliance in Maharashtra.
Independent legislator Kadu warned that if the government failed to respond, he would not hesitate "to bomb" the residence of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
"If the government does not listen to the farmers, just like the way Bhagat Singh lobbed a bomb, I will also drop at bomb at the CM's residence," declared Kadu, who recently shot to headlines after calling BJP MP and former actress Hema Malini "a bumper drinker".
"The agitation is spreading across India. We support the demands of complete debt waiver for all farmers whose loans are outstanding with district cooperative and nationalized banks, full implementation of the M.S. Swaminathan Committee Report and a Rs 5,000 monthly pension to all farmers as social security," demanded Utagi.
Maharashtra farmers across the state – barring urban or semi-urban centres like Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Aurangabad and others have been on a strike since June 1.
Several lakhs of farmers have virtually taken to the streets with road blocks, mock funerals of the Chief Minister and the government, tonsuring of heads, processions in semi-clad condition, emptying scores of tankerloads of fresh milk, fruits and vegetables on the roads, and other forms of agitation to highlight their demands.
The agitation also included a 'Maharashtra shutdown' on Monday and lockdown of several government offices, demonstrations outside offices of ministers and legislators.
Fadnavis had announced on Tuesday that the government was working out the "biggest" farm loans waiver package in the state's history by October 31.
The agitation caused severe disruptions in arrivals of milk, fruits and vegetables from mofussil areas to urban markets, resulting in shortages and spiralling retail prices as the government made arrangements to procure the requirements by railways from neighbouring Gujarat.
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