Nagpur, Jan 25 (IANS) The Vidarbha Vikas Parishad, a non-political platform of farmers, has decided to hold demonstrations Saturday in all 11 districts of Vidarbha region to press their demand that the distressed farmers’ loans be written off.
Raju Mishra, spokesperson for the Vidarbha Vikas Parishad, told IANS that former Planning Commission deputy chairman Mohan Dharia will participate in the agitation on the Republic Day in Nagpur. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) parliamentarian Dutta Meghe, who heads the Parishad, and other NCP leaders and farmer leaders will join in.
While Meghe, whose party is a constituent of the Democratic Front government in Maharashtra and the United Progressive Alliance government at the centre, has been raising the loan waiver demand for a long time, octogenarian Gandhian Mohan Dharia recently participated in a Shiv Sena agitation for the same cause.
Dharia, who was awarded Padma Vibhushan in 2005 for his work in the field of environment and rural reconstruction, had staged a hunger-strike in Pune a year before, demanding loan waiver for farmers across the country.
Earlier this month, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Rajnath Singh led his party’s “Kisan Yatra” (farmers’ rally)) that traversed five districts of Vidarbha in a span of two days.
The all-Vidarbha agitation planned for the Republic Day was preceded by “dharna” (sit-in) in Wardha and Yavatmal Friday, in which Dharia took part.