Kisan Kranti, a state-level coordination committee of different farmers’ outfits, today said it was firm on a state-wide farmers strike from June 1, in a bid to draw the state government’s attention to their problems.
“Over 200 farmers representatives gathered at Puntamba village in Ahmednagar district and decided to go ahead with the agitation,” Kisan Kranti spokesperson Dhananjay Dhorde said.
The farmers are going go on strike, raising a slew of demands from loan waiver to free electricity.
Earlier, over 2,000 farmers who mobilised support from various gram panchayats across 40 villages in districts of Ahmednagar, Nashik and Aurangabad had announced they will not to sell the farm produce in market if their demands were not heeded by May 31, Dhorde said.
A farmer activist, who attended today’s meeting, claimed that chief minister Devendra Fadnavis was ‘dividing’ the farming community, by inviting some farmers from Ahmednagar district, who are affiliated to BJP, to Mantralaya for a meeting.
The chief minister recently convened a meeting of some BJP affiliated farmers at Mantralaya, after which they declared that they were withdrawing the proposed agitation, the activist said.
“This was an attempt to create rift between the farmers, who are firm on their decision to not send their produce like milk or vegetables to the urban areas,” he said.
The strike would involve not selling agri produce in market and not engaging in any fresh crop growing activities, Dhorde said.
“Last month, we had the first ‘gram grabha’ at Puntamba which was convened after a specific demand by farmers. Such gram sabha meets were held in various parts of the state,” Dhorde said.
“We prepared a charter of demands about problems faced by farmers. We have sought pension for farmers and a 100 per cent subsidy for drip irrigation. The demands were submitted to the local tehsildar,” he said.
“If the government doesn’t act on our demands by May 31, no agri produce will be brought to market and we will also desist from activities including sowing new crop,” he said.
