Mumbai,
\nMaharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday said his government was \u201csensitive and positive\u201d towards the demands of farmers and tribals, who had marched from Nashik to Mumbai to draw the administration\u2019s attention to their problems.<\/p>\n
Fadnavis was responding to a discussion in the Assembly, initiated by Leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, who lauded the farmers participating in the \u2018Kisan Long March\u2019 for their peaceful protest while demanding a complete loan waiver and compensation for hailstorm and pink bollworm pest attack on crops.<\/p>\n
The Azad Maidan in South Mumbai turned into a sea of red on Monday morning as thousands of farmers, carrying red flags, converged here after walking around 180 km from the neighbouring Nashik district over the past six days.<\/p>\n
The farmers plan to surround the Assembly complex to press for their demands of an unconditional loan waiver, and transfer of forest land to tribal farmers who have been tilling it for years.<\/p>\n
The CPI (M)-affiliated All India Kisan Sabha is spearheading the protest.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey (the protesting farmers) reached the Azad Maidan on Monday morning from the KJ Somaiya Ground in the eastern suburbs so that students appearing for their board exams are not hassled due to traffic jams. The Mumbaikars are also taking care of them,\u201d Vikhe Patil said in the House.<\/p>\n
He questioned the need for a ministerial committee to discuss the demands with leaders of the protesting farmers after they reached Mumbai.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy couldn\u2019t the government talk to them before the march began from Nashik on March 6? Such hardships for tribals and farmers could have been avoided,\u201d Vikhe Patil said.<\/p>\n
NCP leader Ajit Pawar also appreciated the protesters for not causing hardships to students appearing for exams.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll parties have supported their just demands. Instead of a ministerial committee, the chief minister should intervene immediately and take decisions on their demands. The government should ensure that there is no law and order problem as the protesters have said they will not leave Mumbai until their demands are accepted,\u201d Pawar said.<\/p>\n
Ganpatrao Deshmukh (of the Peasants and Workers Party) and Shamburaje Desai (of the Shiv Sena) also lauded the protesters for completing a peaceful and disciplined march from Nashik to Mumbai.<\/p>\n
He asked the government to take immediate decisions and give justice to the cultivators.<\/p>\n
Replying to the discussion, Fadnavis said the demands of protestors were very important.<\/p>\n
\u201cAround 90 to 95 per cent of the participants are poor tribals. They are fighting for forest land rights. They are landless and can\u2019t do farming. The government is sensitive and positive towards their demands,\u201d the chief minister said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA ministerial committee has been formed to discuss the demands with protesters. We will take a decision to resolve their issues in a time-bound manner,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Fadnavis said his government was in touch with the march organisers since March 6.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut they were adamant on the march. We tried to talk to them. All help was provided, like traffic management and deployment of medical vans,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The chief minister said he had invited the march leaders for talks at the Vidhan Bhavan later on Monday.<\/p>\n
The committee formed to resolve the farmers\u2019 issues includes revenue minister Chandrakant Patil, water resources minister Girish Mahajan, cooperation minister Subhash Deshmukh, public undertakings minister Eknath Shinde and tribal welfare minister Vishnu Savra.<\/p>\n
The march has been organised to protest the alleged failures of the BJP government on the farm front, including non-implementation of recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission and the Forest Rights Act.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mumbai, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday said his government was \u201csensitive and positive\u201d towards the demands of farmers and tribals, who had marched from Nashik to Mumbai to draw the administration\u2019s attention to their problems. Fadnavis was responding to a discussion in the Assembly, initiated by Leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24611,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[312,315],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-india","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24610"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24612,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24610\/revisions\/24612"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}