Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS) leader MP Raju Shetty said that arrested farmers should be freed as they cultivated opium out of ignorance.
Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS) leader MP Raju Shetty said that arrested farmers should be freed as they cultivated opium out of ignorance. Farmers from the villages also decried that they had cultivated it for spices khas khas and were unaware of the opium’s narcotic use.
Shetty gave an assurance of meeting chief minister Prithviraj Chavan and seek relief for farmers.
He visited Shirala taluka in Sangli district which is part of his Hatkanangle Lok Sabha constituency.
Shetty attended a farmers’ meeting in Padali village from which the police had arrested two farmers for allegedly cultivating opium.
A total of 10 farmers have been arrested from Padali, Chikhali, Sagaon and Natoli villages of Shirala taluka for cultivating opium on the odd-10 acre land. The value of the seized opium was estimated between 2 to 3 crore, while the weights of the straws were estimated around 3.5 tonnes.
Shetty said if the farmers were doing opium farming for a long while then why the revenue department kept mum.
“Talathis visit each and every field twice a year for recording the crops of 7/12 extracts. The employees of agriculture department of the state and ZP also visit farms for different surveys. Why they did not instruct the farmers regarding the legal aspects of this crop?” he said.
Shetty said the farmers were cultivating opium for deriving the spices khas khas for domestic consumption. “The farmers were not aware that what the traders were doing with the pods after purchasing from farmers,” he said.
Nivrutti Nalwade, a 60-year-old farmer, told DNA that the crop is of afu (Marathi name of opium) only after the police raids. “The farmers cultivate it deriving khas khas. I have used the pods and straws as fuel. However, for the last few years, some people had started purchasing it,” Nalwade said.
Another farmer Chandrakant Mudugde said that the farmers realised its economic value three-four years ago after frequent thefts of the pods from farm. “There were frequent incidents of herb pod theft from farm, so the farmers started keeping vigilance.
After which a few agents started its purchase and farmers realised its commercial value. But the herb’s narcotic use was unknown to us,” he said.
“If we had sold this herb for narcotics then we would have become very rich, but that is not the case,” said a farmer Ramchandra Patil.
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