NCP chief Sharad Pawar leads <i>morcha</i> on farmers' issues

Party workers to court arrest if Maharashtra government fails to provide relief, especially in drought-hit regions

Nationalist Congress President and former Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Friday hit the road after 35 years to lead an agitation against the Maharashtra government’s alleged apathy towards farmers, especially in the drought-hit Osmanabad district in the Marathwada region.

Pawar, accompanied by the leader of opposition in the state council, Dhananjay Munde, former minister Padmasinh Patil, and a large number of party workers, said his party would launch a statewide jail bharo agitation from September 14 if the government failed to provide relief to farmers. Pawar started a three-day tour on Friday of the Marathwada region.

Pawar made a scathing attack against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre and in Maharashtra for its neglect of farmers, especially when in Osmanabad district alone, about 88 farmers had committed suicide.

The NCP chief criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his absence in both the houses of Parliament during the monsoon session. He said he wanted to take up farmers’s woes, but could not do so as the session was a washout.

Pawar’s associates recalled him leading an agitation with the Left parties in December 1980, against the Congress-led government in Maharashtra. Pawar had travelled from Jalgaon to Nagpur, covering 450 km in 22 days, to raise issues faced by farmers.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said Pawar was free to agitate but he should answer on who was responsible for the sorry state of affairs of the Osmanabad district central cooerative bank and also of the sugar cooperative factory there.

He also sought an answer from Pawar on who was responsible for diversion of water from Osmanabad.  Fadnavis clarified that ministers and BJP MPs were travelling in the drought-hit Marathwada region to help people.