The farmers owing allegiance to the CPM’s peasants’ wing Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Sabha (ABKS) had their way on Monday after their 200-km gruelling long march from Nashik, as the BJP-led saffron alliance Government accepted a majority of demands, including transfer of forest land rights, total implementation of farm loan waiver scheme by June and increase in quantum of pension under the Sanjay Gandhi Niradhar Yojana.
The farmers, 35,000 of whom had walked all the way from Nashik to Mumbai as part of the “Kisan Long March” organised by the ABKS, called off their agitation in the evening, after the Maharashtra Government handed to their leaders a letter of assurance, assuring them that it had accepted nearly 80 percent of their demands and would implement them in a time-bound manner.
Mumbaikars, who had apprehended that they might get struck in traffic on Monday because of the farmers’ long march, woke up to a pleasant surprise that the agitating farmers – not wanting to inconvenience the people students appearing for the SSC examination – had walked all the way overnight from the KJ Somaiya grounds in north-central Mumbai to Azad Maidan in south Mumbai, where they reached at 5.15 am. Thanks to the prudent approach by the agitators, there were no traffic disruptions in the city during the day.
Given that the farmers owing allegiance to ABKS had evoked total support from major political parties in the state like the ruling Shiv Sena, Congress, NCP and MNS, the Maharashtra Government found itself on the defensive. Much to the relief of the agitating farmers, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis – who confabulated with the farmers’ leaders along with his senior Cabinet colleagues for nearly three hours – readily conceded most of the agitating farmers’ demands.
The farmer leaders and the State Government made separate announcements about the accepted demands of the farmers. At a farmers rally held at the Azad Maidan, the farmer leaders – accompanied by the senior Sena-BJP Ministers from the Maharashtra Government and in the presence of CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury —announced that the State Government had accepted that the State Government had accepted most of their demands and that they were calling off their agitation.
Talking to media persons outside Vidhan Bhavan, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said: “We held very a cordial and positive meeting with the farmers’ leaders. We have conceded most of the demands of the tribals, labourers and farmers who took part in the long march. Their main demand is transfer of forest land in the names of Adivasis who cultivate it. ...Most of the protesters were Adivasis who have not so got forest land rights. During the next 6 months all the pending issues relating to the forest land rights will be cleared and the land would be transferred to farmers”.
Dwelling upon the farm loan waiver scheme, the Chief Minister said: "Many farmers had been left out from the loan waiver announced by the previous DF Government in 2008.