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Opp backs Maharashtra MP’s fast
An indefinite fast undertaken by Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana MP Raju Shetty in Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar’s hometown of Baramati demanding the first installment price of Rs 2,350 per tonne of sugarcane gathered momentum on Tuesday.
Much to the discomfort of the Maharashtra Government, the Opposition Shiv Sena, BJP and MNS threw their weight behind Shetty.
Shetty - who led a five-day march of sugarcane growers from the temple town of Pandharpur in Solapur district to Baramati - launched his fast immediately on his arrival in the Union Agriculture Minister’s home town, after slamming Pawar’s nephew and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar for not giving the farmers a price that their produce deserved.
Shiv Sena’s executive president Uddhav Thackeray met Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and rooted for a first installment sugarcane price of Rs 2,300 per tonne, as against the Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) of Rs 1,450 per tonne announced by the Government for the current crushing season.
Uddhav also asked the Chief Minister to immediately convene a meeting of various protesting groups and political parties, crusading for an increased procurement price for sugarcane, so that the State Government could scale up the purchase price of the agriculture produce.
While the Shiv Sena deputed its senior leader Diwakar Raote to meet Shetty and express its solidarity with his ongoing agitation, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Rah Thackeray on Tuesday rushed his party’s MLAs to Baramati on a similar mission.
State BJP president Sudhir Mungantiwar personally met Shetty and announced his party’s support to the ongoing agitation for an increased purchase price of sugarcane.
“It is unbecoming of the State Government that it has not so far bothered to hold talks with Shetty. The Government should set aside its ego, hold talks with Shetty and fix an increased purchase price for sugarcane,” Mungantiwar told The Pioneer in the evening, after his visit to Baramati.
The farmers, led by Shetty, are opposing the FRP fixed by the Maharashtra Government for the current season on the ground that the State administration has considered lower input costs for the calculation of FRP.
The Chief Minister on Tuesday confabulated with his senior Cabinet colleagues, including Pawar and Co-operation Minister Harshvardhan Pati. However, they could not come out with any solution to Shetty’s demand.
While the issue will figure prominently in the State Cabinet meeting scheduled for Wednesday, Patil said the State Government was prepared to hold talks with Shetty.
During the crushing season, Maharashtra is expected to crush a record 825 lakh tonnes of cane and produce 93 lakh tonnes of sugar. The Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank has put a condition on the co-operative sugar factories in the state to pay only the FRP as the first advance of cane payment in order to avail bank loan. Normally, the sugar factories make payment to sugarcane growers in three installments.
Mayawati’s decision to hike the purchase price of sugarcane by Rs 40 per quintal provided much-needed fodder for the protesting farmers in Maharashtra to pillory the State Government for not being as farmer-friendly.
Heaping praise on Mayawati for decision, Shetty said: “With the hike, farmers in Uttar Pradesh would now be getting as much as Rs 2,450 per tonne, compared with an RRP of meagre Rs 1,450 per tonne that sugarcane growers in Maharashtra are getting. Those ruling Maharashtra have something to learn from Mayawati.”
“Mayawati is often criticised for not understanding farmers’ plight as she is not born into a farmer’s family. Yet, she gives farmers higher remunerative price. But in Maharashtra we have leaders born into a farmer’s family who reduce the price,” Shetty said, as he had indirect dig at the Union Agriculture Minister.
Stating that Mayawati understood the problems of sugarcane growers, Shetty said it was time that Maharashtra politicians did some introspection and made amends.
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