In a first step towards finding a solution to the agrarian crisis in Maharashtra, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday appointed a high-power Ministerial Committee, headed by Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil, to hold talks with the agitating farmer leaders on their various demands, including farm loan waiver and remunerative prices for their produce.
After drawing flak from various quarters for his failure to reach out to all sections of the agitating farmers, Fadnavis made the first major move to explore ways to end the nine-day-old farmers’ agitation in the State, by announcing the setting up of a Ministerial Committee to hold talks with various farmer organisations and their leaders.
Apart from Patil, the other members of the high-power Ministerial Committee are Agriculture Minister Pandurang Pundkar, Finance, Planning and Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar, Co-operation Minister Subhash Deshmukh, Water Resources Minister Girish Mahajan — all from BJP and Transport Minister Diwakar Raote of the Shiv Sena.
“The high-power committee will talk to farmer leaders and submit its report to the State Government on all farmers’ demands,” Fadnavis said in a statement issued here.
Reiterating that his Government was prepared to hold talks with farmer leaders on all their demands, the Chief Minister said “We can resolve issues only through discussion. Our Government is ready to hold talks with farmer leaders on all their demands. I request the farmer leaders to find a solution to their demands through a dialogue”.
Fadnavis’ decision to ministerial committee to hold talks with farmer leaders should be seen in the context of his failed talks with one of the leaders of Kisan Kranti core committee on June 3 and the ruling Shiv Sena’s assertion that the Chief Minister did not take the party into confidence before announcing that the State Government would come out with the “biggest-ever” loan waiver package for the farmers.
The State Government’s decision comes a day after Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana MP Raju Shetti, who is currently heading the core committee spearheading the farmers’ agitation in the State, announced that a co-ordination committee of the agitating farmers was prepared to hold talks with the Government.