Milk continues to spill in Nashik

Commemorating the first anniversary of the farmers agitation that started in Puntambha, Ahmednagar district, farmers across the state protest against the centre and state government's anti-farmer policies.

In Nashik and Ahmednagar, farmers spilled several tankers of milk on the Mumbai-Nashik and Ahmednagar-Pune highways on Saturday. "It has been year since the last strike, but the government has failed to fulfil the promises of complete farm loan waiver, implementations of Dr Swaminathan commission report for fair prices to farm produce, etc," said Ashok Dhavale, president of Akhil Bhartiya Kisan Sabha.

In Nashik, some farmers wore garlands of onions as a mark of protest. "Onion prices are at an all-time low," said Tukaram Patil, an onion farmer from the region. "If a farmer cannot even recover expenses, how will he survive?" said Tukaram Patil, the onion farmer from the region. "We also threw several truckloads of onions on the road. Since the BJP government came in power, not a single crop has be rated at the fair price. The is an injustice; we have been cheated."

Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh's statement, terming the strike as political stunt caused an uproar. State Congress president Ashok Chavan said the statement shows how serious the BJP government is about the issue. "More than 15,000 farmers committed suicides in last four years in Maharashtra," he said. "Every day, 35 farmers end their life in India. This is happening because of BJP's faulty and anti-farmer policy."

Chavan said that the union minister should apology for his statement. "Agriculture growth has also fallen. It is now 1.9 per cent, as against the 4.2 per cent seen during the UPA regime," he added. "Farmers have lost trust in the government. People will teach them lesson in the general and state elections."

DAY TWO

Market effect

• 4 farmers taken into preventive custody in Bhathinda 
• Supply of milk & vegetables hit in Sriganganagar, Hanumangarh and Jhunjhunu districts of Rajasthan

Sweet protests

• Members of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangh supplied hundreds of litres of milk, for free, to patients in Hoshangabad District Hospital in MP
• Farmers of Sangrur, Punjab, made kheer from the milk they decided not to sell, and distributed it among the needy