Headlines
Debt-ridden Maharashtra farmer feels abandoned: Rahul
Nagpur, April 30
Congress vice president Rahul
Gandhi on Thursday described his interaction with the debt-ridden
farmers of Maharashtra as "disturbing" and said there was a strong sense
of abandonment among them because the government was ignoring their
woes.
"My interaction with the farmers was very disturbing,"
Gandhi said at the end of his 15-km 'padyatra' (foot march) in
Maharashtra's Vidarbha region, where he met families of farmers who
committed suicide after their crops failed.
"I have come to
Vidarbha earlier too, but not seen a situation like this... There is a
feeling of abandonment. That is the problem," he told the media here.
Continuing
his attack on the Narendra Modi government that he described as the one
"for a select few corporates and not for farmers", Gandhi said: "When
people are in distress, the role of the government is to comfort them.
The government of Maharashtra and the central governments are ignoring
the farmers."
Gandhi went to five villages in Amravati district where over 600 distressed farmers committed suicide in January.
Highlighting
loans as the "biggest" issue that pushed the farmers towards death,
Gandhi said: "The farmers want the government to forgo their debt. They
are also complaining about not getting the MSP (market selling price)
from the government which is not even increasing it."
"I want to
tell the farmers of Maharashtra that they should not lose hope. We are
with them... We will fight their battle," he added.
Gandhi
reached Nagpur on Wednesday night and left for Gunj village, about 50 km
from Amravati town, early on Thursday to begin the march.
On his
way to Gunj, Gandhi was greeted by people who lined both sides of the
roads. He spoke to some of them to get an insight into their problems.
A
Congress official told IANS that Gandhi was accompanied by All India
Congress Committee general secretary Mukul Wasnik, Maharashtra Pradesh
Congress Committee president Ashok Chavan, Congress Legislature Party
leader Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil and Youth Congress chief Amrinder Singh
Raja Brar among others.
Maharashtra was the second state Gandhi
visited after Punjab to meet farmers and campaign against the central
government's controversial land ordinance which he says is anti-farmer.