Nagpur: The ‘Sangharsh Yatra,’ called Chanda to Banda, being undertaken by Opposition parties led by Congress and NCP to express solidarity with farmers over the demand of loan waiver, reached Nagpur on Friday. During the Yatra, public meetings were held at Butibori and Kondhali.
As part of the ‘Sangharsh Yatra,’ a demonstration was organised at Variety Square in the city against ‘adamant’ State Government. The Opposition parties are blaming wrong policicies of BJP Government for spate of farmers’ suicides in the State. The demonstration being staged at Variety Square was participated by Leader of Opposition on State Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil.
Addressing the protesters, Vikhe-Patil said that failures of State Government is causing unrest among farmers. The distressed farmers, faced with agrarian crisis and wrong policies of the government, are taking the extreme step. “It is unfortunate that problems of farmers are an election issue only for the ruling party. Wherever the Prime Minister goes for election meetings he promises waiver of farm loans. However, the states which the party is ruling keep a studied silence over the issue. The ruling party in Maharashtra is diverting the issue of Sangharsh Yatra. AC bus in the Yatra is being made an issue. Had Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis travelled in ST bus when he toured drough-affected Marathwada region? He had also used AC cars of the State Government for travelling from one place to another. This is nothing but a diversionary tactic from the core issue. This Sangharsh Yatra will continue till the justice is done to farmers,” Vikhe-Patil said.
Other leaders who participated in the protest include Jitendra Avhad, Sunil Kedar, Gopal Agrawal, Sajet Patil and others.
The leaders and MLAs of the opposition in the State Legislative Assembly will travel from Nagpur to Chandrapur, Yavatmal, Wardha, Butibori, Amravati, Hingoli, Parbhani, Jalna, Aurangabad, Beed, Latur, Osmanabad, Solapur, Pandharpur and Pune. The Yatra will conclude with a public meeting at Panvel on April 4.
The schedule includes interactions with farmers’ groups, meeting kin of farmers who have committed suicide and public meetings.
