Farmers strike turns violent in Maharashtra
The first of a kind farmers ‘strike’ in the country has seen a violent turn with the first day seeing violence across the state by farmers groups who have vandalized trucks carrying vegetables and Milk tankers who have ignored the call for the strike.
On Thursday a truck carrying vegetables was burnt down in Kopargaon in Ahmednagar district that was not the exception there was reports of violence throughout Maharashtra. While the farmers groups under the Kisan Kranti Morcha claimed that there strike would be peaceful, there were reports of violence from the early hours of June 1 when the strike began. Two milk tankers in Satara were vandalized at around 12.40am it self.
Milk tankers coming from Mumbai from Kolhapur were also stopped and the vehicles vandalized. In many districts throughout the state like solapur where milk vans were forcibly stopped and the milk discharged on the road it self. Similar incidents were seen in Niphad in Nashik where farmers groups stopped vegetable and fruit trucks and after vandalizing them threw the goods on the road. Milk vans were attacked in Pune and the milk were spilled on the road. Milk vans were attacked in Dhule too. The entire Nashik market was shut including the Lasangaon which is Asia’s biggest onion market. In Manmad’s Lasalgaon a Tempo carrying packed packaged Milk was attacked and the packets were strewn on the road. Vegetable trucks were also attacked in Yavatmal- Manmad road.
Trucks on the Bangalore Pune road were also stopped and vandalized.
The Kisan Kranti Morcha has gone on strike making a host of demands from the state government. From asking the state to waive off loans by farmers to demanding a Minimum Support Price for their produce. Implementation of the Swaminathan Committee report on farmers and giving 100% subsidies to farmers for drip irrigation.
Source: ECONOMIC TIMES