Youth Congress workers of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) along with orange growers in the district on Friday launched an agitation in Katol, around 40 km from Nagpur, to protest the Maharashtra government’s failure to provide financial help to distressed farmers suffering from crop damage and low market rates.
A number of workers tonsured their heads (shaving the head or part of it) and staged a dharna to protest the government’s apathy towards the famers’ plight.
Youth Congress workers warned that they would continue their agitation till the government paid heed to the farmers’ grievances.
State vice-president, NCP Youth Congress, Salil Deshmukh, who is in-charge of the Vidarbha region, led the workers; a release from his office stated on Friday.
Addressing the agitators, Mr Deshmukh said, “Soya bean crop has also suffered losses while cotton failed to bring remunerative prices to farmers. Now, orange orchards in Katol, Narkhed taluka and nearby orange-growing areas are suffering from diseases, resulting in fruit fall. Farmers are not getting prices which could recoup expenditure for plucking, leave aside cost of production.”
Prevailing orange prices in the market range between Rs 2,000 and Rs 5,000 per ton. As a result, thousands of tons of oranges are lying in the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committees (APMC) at Katol and Narkhed.
The concerned district authorities have decided to visit Katol-Narkhed on November 29 to meet affected farmers. Mr Deshmukh also expressed confidence that farmers will get good prices for their oranges through Nanded’s processing project. This will bring a ray of hope to them, he added in the release.
