Pune: While Pune limped back to normalcy from the effects of the State-wide farmers’ strike, the agitation raged on in several parts of Maharashtra for the fourth day on Sunday, with police being deployed to rein in demonstrators.
Members among the core committee of the Kisan Kranti Morcha, the umbrella body of the agitators, said there would be no let-up in the agitation.
On Saturday, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had agreed to write off farm loans amounting to ₹30,000 crore, and said the strike had ended. While a section of the protesters said a consensus had been reached, the Maharashtra unit of the Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Sabha had said the farmers demands had not been met and the strike would continue.
On Sunday, the agitation was alive, especially in Nashik district, central Maharashtra and parts of Marathwada, with demonstrators spilling milk and destroying vegetables.
In Nanded, the police booked 15 farmers for “deliberately breaching” the agreement to call of the strike after the group was found throwing vegetables and littering the streets with milk. Likewise, in Nashik district’s Mhasrul, farmers staged a rasta roko, while destroying vegetables. In Solapur’s Karmala tehsil, 25-30 farmers emptied 10,000 litres of milk into the gutter, saying that the agitation was anything but over.
In Western Maharashtra’s milk belt, farmers waylaid a milk container truck belonging to Gokul Dairy (the Kolhapur District Cooperative Milk Society Ltd.) in Sangli district. Further incidents of milk spilling were recorded along the Pune-Solapur highway and in parts of Nashik, including Yeola, while activists of the Peasants and Workers Party (PWP) led the milk spilling in Ahmednagar’s Pathardi Taluk. The PWP has called for a shutdown in Pathardi on Monday.
Once more, Nashik district proved especially restive, with farmers pelting stones at a police vehicle.
In Aurangabad, police stood guard outside the home of Jayaji Suryavanshi, one of the coordinators of the Kisan Kranti Morcha who parleyed with the Chief Minister and the government officials. A number of pro-agitation outfits, including the Sambhaji Brigade, demonstrated against Mr. Suryavanshi, accusing him of ‘betraying’ the farmers’ cause and compromising with the government.
Many farmers are disgruntled with the “compromise” effected by the delegation that met Mr. Fadnavis on Friday.
In Pune, however, vegetable trucks trickled into the market in Gultekdi, which nevertheless continued to wear a desolate look. The supply of milk achieved a semblance of normalcy as trucks and vans of the large milk suppliers, including Chitale dairy, were seen making their daily rounds to retail outlets.
Despite an atmosphere of ambivalence, agriculture produce market committees in Western Maharashtra showed signs of gradually picking up business.
