Farmers Movement Archive

Farmers protest against agriculture bills peacefully

Nashik/Kolhapur: The agitation against the passage of farms bills passed off peacefully in most places.In the Nashik division, including Nashik, Dhule, Nandurbar, Jalgaon and Ahmednagar districts, farmers, led by political and social organisations, presented memorandums to the revenue officials. The call for agitation given by the Leftist organisations to condemn the farm bills, witnessed a fair response in the areas dominated by these organisations. The agitation, however, was lukewarm in other places. “Barring two incidents of the rasta roko — one each in Ahmednagar and Jalgaon — there was no other incident in the entire region. The farmers agitated in a peaceful manner,” Pratap Dighavkar, the special inspector-general, Nashik range, said. The agitation saw the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana activists, led by Sandeep Jagtap and others, burning an effigy of the Central government. “The government is giving a red-carpet welcome to the traders in the agricultural sector and this will ruin the farmers,” said Jagtap. At Chandwad, about 300 farmers sought immediate withdrawal of the bills. “We met the tehsildar and presented the memorandum of the demands. It was a peaceful agitation and we ensured physical distancing,” said Shailesh Bachchav, one of the farmer leaders. The police said there was an attempt to block the road, but it was foiled. There were agitations in some talukas including Dindori, Kalwan, Surgana.In Jalgaon, the agitators, led by Pratibha Shinde, blocked the Mumbai-Agra highway on the Girna bridge to stage a protest. Several organisations came together for the agitation that disrupted the traffic on the highway for some time. The police quickly swung into action and whisked away the agitators, who were detained after cases were registered against them. Similarly, there were agitations in Akole, Shevgaon and Ahmednagar where rasta rokos were organised by the agitators at Kotwali near Ahmednagar city. The agitations were also witnessed in Nandurbar district.The business in the agriculture produce market committees continued as usual though few farmers agitated outside some of the committees. “Business and trade began on a peaceful note in the morning. There were no disruptions,” an official at the Lasalgaon APMC said. Centre looking to privatise Nafed, FCI: Raju ShettiIn Kolhapur, farmers’ leader and former MP Raju Shetti accused the Centre of trying to privatise National Agriculture Cooperative Federation (Nafed) and Food Corporation of India (FCI). Shetti, taking part in the nationwide protest, burnt copies of the farm bills. Several other organisations in the region were also out on streets in support of the farmers demanding withdrawing of the bills. Shetti said, “The Centre in on a spree to sell government companies. With these anti-farmer bills, the corporates will dictate the prices of the farm produce. The government is going to privatise Nafed and FCI. Though there is no law to buy farm produce at minimum support price (MSP), these two agencies buy the farm produce at MSP. The government is planning to privatise these two government agencies as the corporates are eyeing the godowns and infrastructure of Nafed and FCI across the country. We will support the bills, if government passes a law stating that no farm produce should be bought below MSP.”Shetti pointed out when Narendra Modi was a chief minister, he had written to the then Congress-led government to pass a law on mandatory MSP. “His intentions have now changed. His policies are destroying farmers,” said Shetti.Meanwhile, the Sangli district administration had issued prohibitory orders to quell the protest. However at some places in the district, roads were blocked, but mainly by the workers of farmers’ outfits.

The Times of India

2020-09-26

Nashik