A day before his 83rd birthday on Tuesday, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and former union agricultural minister, Sharad Pawar, on Monday participated in a rasta roko agitation at Chandwad in Nashik district, demanding that the Centre roll back its decision to ban onion exports.
Joining the rasta roko staged by farmers on the Mumbai-Agra national highway against the Centre’s decision to ban onion exports till March 31, 2024, the NCP chief demanded that the ban on the export of the kitchen staple be lifted immediately and that he will personally raise the issue in the ongoing session of Parliament in Delhi.
The Centre’s decision to ban onion exports till March 31, 2024 elicited a sharp reaction from onion growers and traders in Maharashtra which is the largest producer of onion, grown mainly in Nashik, Dhule, Pune, Ahmednagar and Solapur districts.
“Nashik can show the way,” said Pawar while sensing the anger among onion growers across the region. He further added that the union government was ignoring the “hard work of the farmers” and said that the cultivators need to be united and demand what is rightfully theirs.
“I will go to New Delhi tomorrow and raise the issue with the authorities concerned as well as in the ongoing Parliament session. The state and union government have the responsibility to help farmers,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}“I will go to New Delhi tomorrow and raise the issue with the authorities concerned as well as in the ongoing Parliament session. The state and union government have the responsibility to help farmers,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}Pawar said that the Centre has taken the wrong decision by banning onion exports. “They (Centre) need to rectify it. I don’t like to be involved in a rasta roko but we are forced to do it to awaken the central government,” Pawar said.
Several activists of the NCP, Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT), CPM and various farmers’ organisations also participated in the agitation held at an intersection on the Mumbai-Agra national highway. The protesters organised a morcha from the Chandwad Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) and reached the highway where they staged the rasta roko.
Pawar said, “A large quantity of onion is in the shipping process and some onion is lying at different ports. The Centre needs to allow the onion to be shipped immediately and withdraw the ban on exports.”
Referring to the huge losses suffered by farmers due to unseasonal rain and hailstorms, Pawar said that onion and grape growers are already facing problems and the ban on onion exports will worsen their situation. Earlier last month, unseasonal rain and hailstorms caused massive damage to onion and grape farms in Nashik and the adjoining areas.
The former agriculture minister said that the Centre does not have a consistent policy on onion export and it is affecting India’s image in the international market. “Changing policies time and again is not good. The country, onion farmers as well as traders have to pay the price for it,” he said.
Pawar recalled how he had refused to ban exports when he was the agricultural minister in the UPA government even as the MPs from the opposition had agitated. “The onion cost in the whole meal is not much and citizens should accept it for a short period,” Pawar said.
Earlier in 2017, Pawar had similarly hit the streets against the then Devendra Fadnavis government on his birthday.