Farmers to Hold Protest March on 20th February

Blaming the government for not fulfilling the promises made last year, the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) on 5^th February announced that the peasants' bodies will again hold a protest rally from Nashik to Mumbai, starting on 20^th February.

The AIKS in a statement told that the farmers will reach Mumbai on 27^th February.

Around 40,000 farmers as pegged by the All India Kisan Sabha held a protest demonstration in March 2018 between Nashik and Mumbai to push for a number of demands, including farm loan waiver, MSP and provision of water and pension to the cultivators.

The peasants' bodies have been up in arms against the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project also.

The statement further mentioned that the Maharashtra government "woke up" to and had accepted the farmers’ demands after they carried out the protest march from Nashik to Mumbai.

AIKS also said, "A year has passed but the government has not implemented any of the promises it made. There is dissent among the farmers”.

Keeping all these things in mind, a long march will be taken out against the Centre as well as state government for their betrayal.

The statement was jointly issued by Ashok Dhawale, the president of AIKS along with its leaders Kisan Gujar, J P Gavit, Arjun Aade and Ajit Navale.

It also claimed that the upcoming rally will include twice the number of farmers participating in it as compared to previous year. AIKS added that farmers from 23 districts of the state will actively take part in the march.

It is important to mention that the upcoming long march also follows 208 organisations of farmers from parts of India who staged protest in the national capital in November last year, asking for the demands.

The statement said, "It was expected that the government would make provisions in the Interim Budget 2019 to fulfill the demands. But those were not fulfilled in the Budget presented by Union Minister Piyush Goyal".