NCP slams Maha over sit-in protest by daughters of farmers

The NCP Wednesday slammed the Maharashtra government over the agitation launched by daughters of farmers in Puntamba village in Ahmednagar district for various demands including a complete loan waiver.

Maharashtra Nationalist Congress Party unit president Jayant Patil said the "annatyag" (food abandonment) agitation will force the "irresponsible" BJP government to vacate power.

"The 'annatyag' agitation by the farmers' daughters will compel the irresponsible BJP government to vacate power," Patil said in a tweet with hash tags of 'Kisan Long March', 'Farmers' and 'Parivartan Yatra'.

Parivartan Yatra is the public outreach programme the NCP has undertaken ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

Daughters of farmers in Puntamba village, which saw a movement for loan waiver two years ago, launched a fresh agitation on Tuesday over a slew of demands of the peasants.

These young women, all in their early 20s, are demanding complete farm loan waiver and other relief measures like remunerative price for crop produce.

The village, located in Ahmednagar district, hogged limelight in 2017 after a protest started by farmers there spread to other parts of the state, prompting the Devendra Fadnavis government to announce Rs 34,000 crore farm loan waiver in June that year.

Now, around 10 to 15 daughters of farmers, who took part in the 2017 agitation, have started a sit-in at a makeshift pandal in Puntamba, located around 250 km from here, under the banner of Kisan Kranti Morcha, a farmers' body.

Their agitation is led by Nikita Jadhav, daughter of Kisan Kranti Morcha's state convener Dhananjay Jadhav.

Farmers from Puntamba village had in April 2017 decided at a gram sabha meeting to stop the supply of produce to all major cities from June 1 that year.

The strike, that had spread to various parts of Maharashtra in the next few days, led to farmers shutting down wholesale markets and blocking highways. They had also disposed of milk and vegetables on roads.

The protests had forced the state government to form a Cabinet sub-committee to follow up on farmers' demands of farm loan waiver and remunerative crop prices.