A week after he allegedly consumed poison outside the Mantralaya, Dhule farmer Dharma Patil passed away while under treatment at the J.J. Hospital late on Sunday night.
Patil (84) had come to Mumbai to try and meet Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis as well as other senior ministers in connection with the inadequate compensation that he had received for his land in Dhule, which was acquired for a solar power project. He complained of uneasiness and collapsed, and was being rushed to the St. George Hospital when he told his son Narendra that he consumed poison.
The farmer , who was on dialysis, died due to acute kidney failure late on Sunday night.
On Monday, his kin refused to claim his body from the hospital. “We are not going to touch the body unless the CM himself comes here and gives us the compensation that my father died protesting for,” Narendra said on Monday.
Compensation
The farmer’s son Narendra Patil had told PTI that his father got only ₹4 lakh compensation for his five acres of land.
The farmer had been visiting the State administrative headquarters for the last three months to complain about the inadequate compensation for his land, his son had said.
The Maharashtra government had offered an assistance of ₹15 lakh to the farmer, but his son refused to accept it.
Opposition blames government
Following the incident, the opposition Congress and NCP have blamed the government.
Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council Dhananjay Munde said despite the farmer killing himself in Mantralaya, “the government did not feel like giving him justice.”
“Only this government is to be blamed for the farmer’s death,” the NCP leader said.
Mr. Munde’s counterpart in the Assembly and Congress leader Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil said the farmer died due to “the government apathy and the anti-farmer policies.”
“The government is yet to wake up even after thousands of farmers have ended their lives,” Mr. Vikhe Patil said.
(with inputs from PTI)
