Farmer groups threaten protest against power bill issue, demonetisation

MUMBAI: Farmer groups have threatened a stir against the state government's crackdown on unpaid power bills from Wednesday. "If the power to agricultural pumps is cut off, we will capture power stations and re-connect the power supply," said Ajit Navle from the Kisan Sabha.

Farmer groups are also planning to agitate on 8 November, the first anniversary of demonetization. On November 10, they will protest on the issue of the farm loan waiver and dump agricultural produce and milk outside the district government offices. "Demonetization hit the agriculture sector the hardest. It has not been able to recover from the blow," said Raghunathdada Patil of Shetkari Sanghatna.

Higher prices for agricultural goods including milk had been a key demand which also led to the announcement of the loan waiver in June. "Instead, we find that the price of milk has reduced by Rs 5 per litre," said Navle. They also called the loan waiver a case of "historic cheating"."The government has imposed very though eligibility criteria and made Aadhaar mandatory in order to apply for the waiver. As a result, many farmers have been excluded from the waiver," said Navle.