Maharashtra: Farmers start protest march in Nagar

The march is being spearheaded by the All India Kisan Morcha (AKIS) and is being supported by the CITU, AIAWU, AIDWA, DYFI, SFI and others

Braving scorching Sun and soaring mercury, hundreds of farmers began their three-day, 52-kms-long protest march in the Ahmednagar district on Wednesday.

The march is being spearheaded by the All India Kisan Morcha (AKIS) and is being supported by the CITU, AIAWU, AIDWA, DYFI, SFI and other like-minded mass organisations.

The farmers have started their march from Akole to Loni in Ahmednagar, which incidentally is the hometurf of state’s revenue, dairy development and animal husbandry minister and senior BJP leader Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil.

For the 10-month-long Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government this is the second such mega-protest after last month’s Nashik-Mumbai march, which culminated in Thane following talks with the government.

The Ahmednagar Police on Wednesday slapped notices to the organisers refusing permission for the long march in view of the scorching summer temperatures in a bid to avoid any heat stroke tragedy like the one after the Maharashtra Bhushan awards ceremony in Navi Mumbai.

The farmers started their march carrying red flags, banners and posters, shouting slogans for their demands.

Besides AKIS president Dr Ashok Dhawale, other senior leaders who would lead the rally include J P Gavit, Umesh Deshmukh, Dr Ajit Nawale, Dr Uday Narkar, Kisan Gujar, Subhash Choudhary, Chandrakant Ghorkhana, Sanjay Thakur.

Rural affairs journalist P Sainath, the eminent rural economist Dr R Ramakumar, the popular peasant leader and writer from North India Badal Saroj, CPI (M) MLA Vinod Nikole, and many others have extended support to the foot march.