MUMBAI, FEB 26: Alliance partners Shiv Sena and BJP have struck a consensus over the contentious issues of free power and cotton prices under the monopoly procurement scheme. As per the informal agreement, the Shiv Sena will not press for free power to all the 22 lakh farmers, the BJP, on its part, won't push on a proposal for hike in the cotton prices from Rs 2100 to Rs 2500 per quintal.The deal promises to benefit small and marginal farmers and those with three horse power agriculture pumps with free power and in turn Sena would not stand in the path of a hike in cotton prices in the next procurement season.The seeds for this spat were sown on October 1, when Sena chief Bal Thackeray in his usual style made a unilateral declaration that the Sena-BJP government will provide free power to all farmers. In support of his leader, Chief Minister Manohar Joshi even publicly snubbed his Deputy Gopinath Munde for taking a stand that went against Thackeray's line. This flared up things and an agitated Munde publicly disclosed that it will not be possible for the Government to oblige Thackeray.Munde's contention was that if the decision is implemented in letter and spirit it would adversely affect the State's economy already facing a crunch. Munde told the coordination committee meeting attended by Thackeray, Joshi and BJP leader Pramod Mahajan that only a budgetary allocation of Rs 2100 crore would satisfy Thackeray's plan for farmers and the Maharashtra State Electricity Board will then have to forgo the arrears of Rs 700 crore and in addition would not get Rs 700 crore for the current year and another Rs 700 crore the next year.When Thackeray refused to accept these arguments, in a shrewd move, Munde proposed that the alliance would hike the prices of cotton under the monopoly cotton procurement scheme from Rs 2100 to Rs 2500. The Shiv Sena objected to the revised proposal.As Munde moved the proposal for hiking the cotton prices in the Cabinet, the then transport minister Diwakar Raote took objection, saying the it should be taken up with the Cabinet debate on free power. Munde was pressed to withdraw his proposal.Now, in the changed political situation following Rane's induction as Chief Minister, the partners have decided on a compromise formula: ``We have decided to settle the dispute amicably. We have accepted their revised proposal involving small and marginal farmers,'' a senior BJP Minister told The Indian Express.So far as the prices of cotton are concerned, since the procurement season is over, the decision about it will be taken during the next season. ``If we hike the prices now, not the farmers, but traders will be the main beneficiaries of the decision,'' the BJP Minister added.
