Provide free seeds; electricity to farmers by stopping loan recovery: Wadettiwar

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:

Despite the severe drought, the state's Agriculture Minister has gone on a foreign tour, leaving the farmers to fend for themselves. Several guardian ministers remained absent in the review meetings on the drought situation held in the presence of the Chief Minister. So why did you bother becoming ministers? In these sharp words, the leader of the opposition in the Legislative Assembly, Vijay Wadettiwar, expressed his anger on Thursday.

He also made urgent demands, including waiving farmers' loans, providing them with free electricity, seeds, and fertilisers for the Kharif season, and ensuring fodder is directly available in the farmers' own premises instead of fodder camps.

Tender of Rs 25,000 crore

He accused the government of being interested in tenders and commissions. Despite the election code of conduct being in place, tenders worth Rs 25,000 crore were issued with the permission of the Election Commission. This government is obsessed with tenders and has nothing to do with farmers.

Wadettiwar was speaking to the media persons in the city before departing to visit the family of Vitthal Dabhade, a farmer from Pimplakhuta in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar tehsil, who committed suicide due to not receiving a loan, and to visit Javkheda (in Jalna district) where a member of the Kumbhar community had their land forcibly taken.

Major failure of Government

Wadettiwar said that 73% of Maharashtra is experiencing drought, with Marathwada being the most affected. Often, damage assessments are conducted, but actual aid is not provided. The issue of drinking water is becoming severe. In the Agriculture Minister’s own Beed district alone, there have been 267 suicides. This is a major failure of the state government.

We will return the land

In Javkheda, a member of the Kumbhar community was beaten, and his land was forcibly taken. It is allegedly said that the union Minister of State for Railways is behind this. No action was taken on the complaint of this victim. Wadettiwar assured that if their government came to power, they would appoint a task force to return such seized lands.

He also expressed surprise that an 18% GST is imposed on tractors and seeds, while only a 3% GST is levied on gold.

Awhad is Ambedkarite

Jitendra Awhad, like us, follows the ideology of Phule-Shahu-Ambedkar. It should be noted that he did not intentionally tear the photo of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar. Moreover, he immediately apologised for the incident. Wadettiwar clarified in response to a question that they stand by Awhad. He also demanded a judicial inquiry into the Porsche car accident case in Pune.

The Congress’s district president Dr Kalyan Kale, city president Yusuf Shaikh, Marathwada president (OBC Cell) Kanchankumar Chate and other activists were present on the occasion.