Pawar threatens to launch jail bharo aandolan if the Fadnavis government fails to provide financial assistance to drought affected farmers.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar has criticised the Fadnavis government for its inability to tackle drought in Maharashtra. Pawar who is touring the Marathwada region of the state said that the government is turning a blind eye towards the drought relief issue. Pawar has threatened to organise a jail bharo andholan if the government fails to provide financial assistance to drought affected farmers. He appealed to the government to solve the problems of farmers at the earliest.
The Maharashtra government has reported 257 suicides by farmers in the State between January and March this year resulting from the agrarian crisis. As many as 114 cases of suicides were reported from the Aurangabad region, followed by Amrawati (102), Nagpur (30) and Nashik (nine) the data showed. Eight eight farmers have committed suicide in Osmanabad. NCP had held a protest in Osmanabad district to make the government aware about the situation prevailing in the drought hit Marathwada region.
Sharad Pawar said, “Farmers problems won’t be solved if they commit suicides. It is first necessary to ascertain the reasons behind why they are taking this drastic step. We also need to monitor whether the farmers are actually receiving the funds disbursed by the government. The collector has said that farmers’ problems will be resolved within a month. Let us wait for a month and if the situation doesn’t improve then we will have to go ahead with the jail bharo aandolan.”
“I wanted to discuss about the farmers’ issues in the parliament but was unable to do so due to frequent disruptions in the house. As a result of this 25 days have already been wasted. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has failed to attend the parliament session. Forget about having discussion he didn’t even appear in the parliament” said Pawar.
“The government is overlooking the interest of the poor people. When the Fadnavis government had come to power it was expected that they will provide good governance in the state but it is not happening. They have failed to fulfil the promises made by them prior to the assembly election” he added further.
A BJP cabinet member admitted that the state’s efforts to tackle the drought were grossly inadequate. “We will have to deploy more water tankers and utilize the rail network for transportation of water,” he said.
“We are banking on district collectors and zilla parishad chief executive officers, but we have failed to monitor their performance,” he said.
On the other hand, Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray took a dig at NCP supremo Sharad Pawar over his proposed visit to the drought-affected regions of Maharashtra, and said the veteran politician is now showing concern for farmers after 35 years.
“Congress and NCP are like empty boxes. Sharad Pawar is speaking for farmers after 35 years. What did he do for farmers when he was the Agriculture Minister? Farmers have reached this stage today only because of their government. It needs to be known why irrigation projects were left midway despite so much amount being spent on them,” he added.
