Mumbai: Taking cognisance of the ongoing protest, the Maharashtra government has decided to start a dialogue with the protesting farmers at Puntamba village in Ahmednagar. State agriculture minister Dada Bhuse will on Saturday visit the village where farmers have started a five-day protest. The meeting between the agriculture minister and protesting farmers will take place on the fourth day of the agitation when he is likely to discuss their demands and give assurances that they will be discussed with chief minister Uddhav Thackeray.
The farmers have threatened to launch a statewide agitation if their demands are not met before the five-day protest ends.
“The demands of the farmers are related to various departments. Tomorrow, I will have a preliminary discussion with the farmers and discuss them with the chief minister, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and concerned departments to get them resolved,” Bhuse told Hindustan Times.
On the third day of the agitation on Friday, the farmers distributed milk among the people for free and burnt sugarcane as a mark of protest.
The farmers have demanded legislation to ensure minimum support price (MSP) for all their agricultural produce. Their other demands include a complete waiver of electricity bills, 10 hours of power supply during the day, and a grant of ₹2 lakh per hectare to sugarcane farmers whose stock is yet to be crushed.
The decision to stage a protest was taken during a special ‘gram sabha’ meeting held at Puntamba village on May 23. Notably, Puntamba is the same village where a farmers’ strike was declared which was eventually joined by farmers across the state, forcing the erstwhile Devendra Fadnavis-led BJP government to declare a loan waiver package in 2017.
Meanwhile, revenue minister Balsasaheb Thorat, along with state Congress president Nana Patole, visited Puntamba on Thursday to understand the issues raised by the farmers.
Thorat said that the issues related to farmers are being discussed at party platforms by referring to the party’s national-level Chintan Shivir held in Udaipur last month and a two-day workshop conducted at Shirdi in Ahmednagar between June 1 and 2.
“We (MVA government) promised a loan waiver to the farmers and farm loan up to ₹2 lakh was waived off. We want to extend the benefit to other farmers as well but because of the Covid-19 pandemic, everything was stopped. Even during that period, the state government procured one million litres of milk from farmers to support them financially. There is a need to study the fixing milk prices. However, the ban on wheat and onion exports imposed by the Centre has increased the difficulties,” Thorat said, slamming the BJP-led central government over its policies.