Fadnavis: Protests politically motivated

As the farmers’ strike continued for the sixth day, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday alleged there were political motives behind the protests.

Fadnavis said he had information that political workers, and not farmers, were involved in the recent violent incidents such as shutting agricultural markets and blocking supply of essential commodities to cities across the state.

As farmers’ outfits plan to intensify their agitation, the state government issued prohibitory orders in Pune, Nashik and Kolhapur districts — where the protests are most intense —to ban the assembly of five or more people. Mumbai, however, remains unaffected.

Farmers’ outfits in the state have been protesting since June 1, demanding a farm loan waiver and protection from falling prices of agricultural commodities.

On Saturday, Fadnavis declared a ₹30,000 crore farm loan waiver for 31 lakh farmers, which will come into effect from October 31. However, a section of farmers’ outfits is not happy and want loans of all 1.34 crore farmers in the state to be written off.

Anticipating trouble after violence in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh on the same issue, the Maharashtra government’s orders that prohibit five or more people from assembling at a spot will remain in effect till June 16 in Pune, June 17 in Kolhapur, and June 19 in Nashik.

Fadnavis on Tuesday also said, “Most of the people staging the protests are not real farmers. They are political workers. I am willing to talk with anyone to resolve the problems of farmers, but not those who have political intentions.”