Maharashtra's political landscape has gone through multiple changes in the last five years, giving almost every politician a chance to be in power and to deliver on their various election promises.
First, Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as the CM with Ajit Pawar as his deputy. Pawar broke his alliance with Fadnavis/BJP and returned to Sharad Pawar's camp within days. Then, Uddhav Thackeray broke the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance and joined hands with Sharad Pawar and Congress to form a government in 2019. In June 2022, Eknath Shinde rebeled against Thackeray. Shinde took 40 Sena MLAs with him, claimed his faction is the real Shiv Sena, joined hands with the BJP, toppled Thackeray's government and became the CM. Last year, Ajit Pawar repeated the same thing at NCP and NCP also got split in two factions. Both Ajit Pawar and Eknath Shinde got the original party name and symbol and the Maharashtra assembly speaker decided that their faction was the real party.
All these twists and turns gave every political party in Maharashtra a chance to be in power in the state. And talking about the election assurances, one segment that was promised big were the farmers of Maharashtra. Now, all the political parties and leaders claim they have done a lot for the farmers of the state, but how true are these claims?
In an exclusive interview to CNBC-TV18, Maharashtra's CM Eknath Shinde said his government has done a lot for farmers of the state. "We have made the insurance amount for crop insurance one rupee, we provide more than the required compensation for any crop damage, we have improved the drip irrigation system in the state. Farmers' condition has improved in our tenure," Shinde said.
But data and ground reality does not support these claims. As per the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), 2,743 farmers committed suicide in Maharashtra in 2021. In 2022, 2,942 farmers committed suicide in the state and as per the state government 2,300 farmers committed suicide between January 2023 to October 2023. As per the latest NCRB report, Maharashtra reported the highest number of farmer suicide in the country.
When asked about these figures, CM Shinde called the situation "unfortunate" and only repeated his claim of doing more than enough to improve the conditions of the farmers.
He also emphasised on providing compensation for crop damage. "Last year we announced Rs 350/quintal compensation to onion farmers when there was a sharp dip in prices. We have also provided compensation for all the crop damage which happened due to multiple incidents of unseasonal rains and hailstorm last year," he said.
But once again, ground reality is absolutely different. CNBC-TV18, in a series of stories spoke to multiple farmers where they said that till date they haven't received the said compensation. When asked about these claims, Shinde said that few farmers can have some issues and he will look into it.
Another thing which is wreaking havoc for Maharashtra's farmers, especially onion farmers, is the onion export ban imposed by the Central government. Shinde is in alliance with the BJP, which is in power at the Centre. When asked about what his government is doing to ensure the ban is lifted, he claimed, "We have written to the Centre and have requested them to lift the ban. Our government is a farmer friendly government and we have not abandoned our farmers."
(Edited by : Shloka Badkar)
First Published: Feb 17, 2024 10:17 AM IST
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