On November 20, two days after the prime minister praised the NCP for maintaining discipline on floor, NCP chief Sharad Pawar met Modi. The topic of discussion? Farmer distress. After his shock defection to the BJP, and remaining ensconced in his south Mumbai residence throughout Sunday, NCP leader and newly-anointed deputy CM Ajit Pawar met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis late night and held closed-door discussions. What did they discuss? A late night tweet from the CMO Maharashtra said the CM and the Deputy CM discussed various measures for rain-hit farmers. "CM @Dev_Fadnavis and DCM @AjitPawarSpeaks today met and discussed on various measures for additional support & assistance to unseasonal rain affected farmers. Tomorrow it will be further discussed with the Chief Secretary & Finance Secretary".
ALSO READ
- Lok Sabha polls 2024 phase 2: Maharashtra gears up for Sena vs Sena contest in three seats | Details
- Salman Khan case: Mumbai police recovers 2 pistols, bullets from Tapi river
- Denying ticket to Varsha Gaikwad reflects Cong-Uddhav Sena’s anti-dalit stand: Milind Deora
- Lok Sabha polls: MVA seals poll pact in Maharashtra, Congress to contest in 17 seats
- Sitars, tanpuras made in Maharashtra's Miraj town get GI tags
- In big relief for Amravati MP Navneet Kaur Rana, SC sets aside HC verdict cancelling her caste certificate
- Congress expels Sanjay Nirupam for anti-party remarks
Throughout the Maharashtra political saga, almost every pow-wow and parley was held under the cover of 'farmer distress'. On November 4, when Shiv Sena raised the flags of rebellion against its alliance partner BJP over sharing the chief minister's post, Fadnavis had met with Shah. Officially, the claim was that Fadnavis wanted more funds from the centre for a farmer package as crops suffered under unseasonal rains. At a later stage of political negotiations, as the deadline for government formation on November 9 fast approached, Congress leader Ahmed Patel met Union Minister Nitin Gadkari. “I met him over farmer issues. It was not a political meeting or on Maharashtra politics,” Patel told reporters, according to Hindustan Times. As the Shiv Sena-BJP stand-off grew unabated, on October 31, Shiv Sena MLA Aaditya Thackeray led a delegation of party leaders who met Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari at the Raj Bhavan. The reason? Prompt financial aid for farmers hit by untimely rains.
The lip-service apart, what has actually been achieved on the ground when it comes to the farmer distress in the state? The statistics are not encouraging. More than 12,000 farmers have committed suicide in Maharashtra between 2015 and 2018, the state assembly was informed in July. Out of the total 12,021 farmer suicides during the three-year period, 6,888 cases were found to be eligible for government aid after scrutiny by district-level committees, Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Subhash Deshmukh told the House in a written reply. So far, family members of 6,845 farmers have been given financial assistance of Rs 1 lakh each, he said. Between January and March 2019, 610 farmers have committed suicide out of which 192 cases were eligible for financial assistance.
But, lacunae existed even in the insurance disbursal. Over 2,000 farmers in a particular teshil in Maharashtra have received crop insurance compensation ranging from Rs one to Rs five each, PTI reported. While 773 farmers got Rs one each as compensation, 669 farmers received Rs two each from the insurance company. Rupees three each were deposited into the bank accounts of 50 farmers, while 702 farmers received Rs four each and 39 got Rs five each as compensation towards crop damage.
The irony is not lost on the agriculturists. As the saffron feud intensified, a farmer from Beed district asked for him to be made chief minister till the ruling BJP
and the Shiv Sena resolve their differences over power- sharing and formation of the next government. The farmer, Srikant Vishnu Gadale, a resident of
Vadmauli in Kej taluka, has expressed this wish in a letter submitted to the office of Beed collector on Thursday. He wrote in the letter, "The Shiv Sena and the BJP are
yet to resolve their issue regarding the post of chief minister which was raised after the 2019 assembly election results. "Natural calamities (unseasonal rains) have hampered
ready-to-harvest crops in the state. The farmers are tense over these calamities." "At a time when farmers are suffering, the Shiv Sena and the BJP are unable to resolve the issue of holding chief minister's post."
"Hence, till the issue is resolved, the governor should hand over the responsibility of chief minister's post to me," Gadale said.
