Farmers decide to stay put on the doorstep of Mumbai; 1 dies
Mumbai: While the Shinde-Fadnavis government have accepted all the demands of the farmers who have been on a foot march from Nashik last Sunday, the farmers, who have halted their march at Vasind in Thane district, said they were not fully satisfied and would wait for actual implementation before calling off the march
Mumbai: While the Shinde-Fadnavis government have accepted all the demands of the farmers who have been on a foot march from Nashik last Sunday, the farmers, who have halted their march at Vasind in Thane district, said they were not fully satisfied and would wait for actual implementation before calling off the march.
Meanwhile, Pundalik Jadhav, a farmer who was part of the march died in Shahapur rural hospital hours after he was admitted to the hospital. He was taken to the hospital after he complained of uneasiness at the place of the protest at Idgah maidan in Vasind.
Chief minister Eknath Shinde announced in the legislative Assembly that all the 14 demands raised by the farmers have been accepted by the government and their implementation will begin soon. Among other demands, the state government has decided to increase the ex-gratia for onion to ₹350 a quintal from ₹300 announced earlier. The government has also constituted a committee of senior ministers along with two members of All India Kisan Sabha which has been leading the march to take steps for the implementation of the decisions.
Shinde said, “We have taken positive decisions on all the demands and the district and tehsil administration has been directed to immediately implement them. The implementation of forest right act for transfer of land, regularization of the houses on grazing land, extending benefits of government schools, rise in the remuneration of anganwadi and asha workers are some of the demands which will be immediately implemented. The 20,000 vacant posts of the anganwadi workers will be filled immediately.”
JP Gavit, CPI leader who spearheaded the long march said after the announcement that they were not fully satisfied. “The state government has taken the decisions on our demand in response to our joint meeting with them on Thursday. They have appointed me and MLA Vinod Nikole on the committee which will monitor the implementation of the decision related to forest rights. We hope that the land pieces will be transferred at the earliest,” he said.
The farmers’ march which started from Nashik on Sunday has been halted at Vasind in Thane district on Wednesday after state government assured to accept their demands. Thousands of farmers from Nashik, Thane, Palghar are part of the march to push their demands. Apart from rate of onion, forest rights, the farmers have been demanding loan waiver, effective implementation of the government schemes among others.
