Maharashtra: Farmers prepared to start second protest, now demands waiver of electricity bills

Farmers are preparing for a second round of protests to waive off their electricity bills. Farmers from Puntambha in Ahmadnagar district, where the first farmers protest started on June 1, 2017, had met the the Nationalist Congress Party president and subsequently Chief Ministe Devendra Fadnavis and appraised him the on going agrarian crisis.

According to the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL), farmers from Maharashtra owe them around Rs 17000 crore.

"For the last several years, farmers have not paid the bills. This amount is accumulating and now it has been almost Rs 17,000 crore. Waiving off the electricity bills of the farmers will be a major disaster," said an MSECL official.

"We have been paying hefty power bills, even though power has not been supplied round the clock. There has been a drought for the last three years. We had hardly used the power to pump out the water for our crops. We used electricity for four months in a year because of the depleting water table. Despite this, we have been paying the power bills. The government should waive off the power bills," said farmers.

"If the government is not keen on waiving electricity bills, then we are ready for the second round of protest," said Sarjerao Jadhav, a farmer from Puntambha.

Dhananjay Jadhav. another farmer leader said that they had demand a complete waiving off of agriculture power bills. "However, the government has not waived off the power bill. It had withdrawn the recently increased rates and had asked farmers to pay the defaulting amount in installments. We wish the government would be more lenient towards the farmer. We told the same to chief minister Fadnavis as well," Jadhav said.

Nanansaheb Patil, farmer leader said that Fadnavis should have given the complete loan waive off for at least the marginal farmers. "Now, the loan waive off up to Rs 1.5 lakh is not helpful because farmers need to again raise the money to pay electricity bills. Most of the farmers are currently unable to pay so the government has cut off the electric supply. That will damage productions. Writing off the loan will not end the farmers' problem. The resentment is still there and it will again come out in the second round of protests," Patil said.

200 farmers organisations across the country are coming together to restart the mass farmers protest at the national level. It will start from Mandsaur where five farmers were killed by Madhya Pradesh police. The protest rally will reach Maharashtra on July 9. Ajit Navale, coordinator of the steering committee said that the Maharashtra government must waive the farmers' electricity bills. "We want a complete waiver of farmer loans, besides waiving off agriculture power bills. If the government does not agree to a waiver, we are prepared to start the second round of protest," Navale said.

Mass protest

200 farmers organisations across India are coming together to restart the mass protest at the national level.
It will start from Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh and  will reach Maharashtra on July 9