Peasants give 2-day ultimatum

Mumbai: The farmers’ agitation in Maharashtra is likely to escalate after the newly-formed core committee of the farmers’ organisations on Thursday issued a fresh ultimatum of two days to the state government to accept its demands.

If it fails to do so, they have threatened to lockdown all tehsil offices on June 12 and a Rail roko on June 13. One of the core committee members also threatened to cut water supply to Mumbai if the demands were not met.

The 21-member committee, which met for the first time in Nashik after the earlier committee of the Kisan Kranti Morcha split on June 3, decided to continue with the stir at its meeting. “We are not calling off our protests. But we will wait till June 11. If the government doesn’t accept our demands, then we will intensify our protests and take it to the roads across the state,” said committee member Ajit Navale.

The meeting on Thursday was important as the strike entered its eighth day with no signs of it abating.

Though chief minister Devendra Fadnavis declared his stand when he said his government was open to discussions, his comments on the ‘real farmer’ backfired. Raju Shetti, a core committee member, termed it insensitive.

“Now the chief minister wants to differentiate between real farmers and fake farmers. He must know that he will not succeed in dividing farmers,” said Mr Shetti. Mr Jayant Patil, the leader of the Peasant and Worker’s party, threatened to cut water supply to Mumbai if the chief minister refused to listen to their demands. “We can do it anytime. Raigad and Nashik districts can decide to stop water supply to Mumbai. The state government must not push us to this extent,” he said.

The wiring on the wall seems quite clear. The farmers’ organisations are clearly in no mood to accept CM Fadnavis’s call for a four month time period to deliberate and then take a decision on loan waivers.