Pune: A week after farmers in Maharashtra began their stir, prices of vegetables began to normalise as supplies to major wholesale markets stabilised on Wednesday amid heavy police deployment across the State.
However protests continued across the State, at times with the support of political entities. In a faint echo of the violence in Madhya Pradesh, there were reports of a scuffle between agitators and policemen in Sangli district as the former attempted to disrupt the town’s vegetable market in the afternoon.
Protestors accused the police of using force to remove activists belonging to different entities like the Kisan Sabha and the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana. The police claimed that the troublemakers were moved from Sangli town to another place to preempt trouble.
Prohibitory orders are already in place against assembly of people in public places under Section 144 of CrPC till 19 June in Nashik district.
The suicide of two Nashik farmers on Monday and Tuesday have lent emotional fuel to the agitation.
Likewise, orders are in place for police jurisdictions across Pune district to take action against burning effigies or photos.
Despite this, effigies against the government continued to be burnt in parts of Latur district in Marathwada. Farmers demonstrated against the Devendra Fadnavis-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government near the residence of BJP leader and the district’s guardian minister Sambhaji Patil Nilangekar. The police detained 17 protestors.
Demonstrations were particularly marked in Ahmednagar district where markets were completely shut in Sangamner, while the cow market was suspended in Rahata.
In Solapur district, the opposition NCP legislator Dilip Sopal came out in support of the agitation by voluntarily ‘locking-out’ his plush residence in the taluk.
At least 10 farmers from the Jan Andolan Committee were taken into police custody for raising slogans against the Chief Minister near Shivaji Chowk in Solapur town.
Other than the traditional agitation centres, several areas of Wardha district in Nagpur division witnessed a near-complete shutdown, with farmers disrupting traffic, staging ‘raasta rokos’ at several places in the district besides destroying vegetables and spilling milk.
The police arrested 60 demonstrators.
Meanwhile, APMCs in Mumbai, Kolhapur and Pune witnessed a normalisation of supplies, aided by a steady stream of arrivals of vegetables and fruits from outside the State.
While the prices of vegetables like tomatoes, cluster beans and okra came down, the supply continued to be less than half of the daily average of four lakh quintals of perishable vegetables, with market sources putting the losses so far at ₹280 crore.
