‘Each time, govt gives assurances but nothing happens’
Most farmers said there was mistrust and lack of confidence among them on the government's assurances because of past experience and therefore they were not willing to accept the assurances on face value and would stay put at Vasind.
4 min read
Members of the farmers’ long march camping at Vasind village of Thane district on Friday. (Express Photo Deepak Joshi ) Despite the assurance by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on their demands, thousands of farmers seemed not convinced and resolved to stay put at Vasind village in Thane and not call off their long march till all their demands are met and implemented.
Most farmers said there was mistrust and lack of confidence among them on the government’s assurances because of past experience and therefore they were not willing to accept the assurances on face value and would stay put at Vasind.
“The issues are pending for years now and have not been resolved despite several protests. Each time, the government gives assurances but nothing happens on the ground. So this time they are not willing to take the assurances of the government on face value but want them to be implemented on the ground. The government needs to gain their trust by walking the talk,” Dharmaraj Shinde, a farmer and member of All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), said.
“All of us will be here till Monday at least and will move only after getting a guarantee that all assurances will be executed on the ground,” he added.
After several rounds of talks with farmers’ representatives, Shinde on Thursday had assured of making an announcement on their demands in the Assembly on Friday. The AIKS-led farmers’ march, which started from Nashik, was halted at an open space in Vasind village in Shahapur taluka of Thane district on Thursday evening. Despite rain on Thursday night and scorching heat along the way, the farmers waited the entire day on Friday for Shinde’s statement with no arrangements for sheds, water and toilets.
As frustration mounted with no news of any statement by the CM on their demands till evening, around 6 pm, Shinde made the statement in the Assembly. Not very happy with what Shinde said, the farmers waited for their leader J P Gavit to come and tell them what to do next.
While some farmers expressed satisfaction over the decision to increase ex-gratia amount for onions, forming a committee to look into the problems related to the implementation of the Forest Rights Act in Maharashtra and providing power supply for eight hours, they were, however, sceptical on their implementation on the ground.
“We are prepared to stay here for seven more days. We will stay here till all our demands are met. We do not want to repeat the same mistake of believing the verbal assurances of the government again,” Aatmaram Jadhav, AIKS member and a farmer, said.
Sanjay Thakare, another farmer, said, “We will wait for Gavit and others to decide the next course of action. But all of us wish to stay put here till all the demands are accepted.”
Mohan Jadhav, the Nashik district president of AIKS, said, “Going by the verbal assurances, we cannot say that all our demands have been accepted. There was a demand for providing subsidy of Rs 500 per quintal to onion farmers but it has been increased to Rs 350 from Rs 300. Also there were many other demands but those have not been accepted in writing. The demands should have been accepted in writing and orders should be given to district collectors for implementation, then only we can say that all our demands have been met. We will wait for Gavit to give us the further directions.”
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