Maharashtra farmers strike: Expressing their dissatisfaction over the steps taken by the government so far, farmers from Maharashtra are once again ready to start a fresh strike from Monday. This strike will come 62 days after they called off their previous agitation seeking loan waiver and fundamental changes in the functioning of agricultural markets, Indian Express reported. Farmers say their demand of complete loan waiver has not been met by the government and therefore they will once again hit the roads and will block all national and state highways. The convenor of the Farmers’ Core Committee, Dr. Ajit Nawale, was quoted by The Indian Express as saying, “We will restart our agitation on August 14 by blocking all national and state highways. We have been forced to do this as our demands have not been met by the government.”
In order to placate the agitated farmers last time around, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had declared that the government’s farm loan waiver scheme would benefit 89 lakh farmers and cost Rs 34,022 crore to the exchequer. While questioning the utility and impact of the government’s loan waiver, the agitating group stated that it has not helped all farmers in the state.
Meanwhile, there are doubts being raised in some quarters about how effective this round of the agitation would be. However, it is being said that the group has requested farmers to come out in large numbers from Monday.