Shetty goes red; demands White Paper on irrigation

Demanding a White Paper on irrigation, Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana leader and Lok Sabha MP Raju Shetty on Thursday said that as water scarcity was not confined to Purandar, a statewide agitation should be launched by all drought-prone talukas.

Addressing a public rally in Saswad, Shetty said that the ruling establishment, especially Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders, should be made accountable for the Rs71,000 crore that was earmarked for various irrigation projects in the past.

He announced support to the indefinite agitation launched by Shiv Sena MLA Vijay Shivtare pressing for the demand of 2.02 thousand million cubic feet (TMC) of water for Purandar from Gunjawani dam.

Farmers’ leaders Sadabhau Khot, Shivtare, Satish Kakade, Shiv Sena Purandar Patluk chief Dilip Yadav and others were present. Shivtare and 48 Purandar residents are on an indefinite fast in front of Saswad tehsil office for four days. Around 10,000 villagers attended the rally on Thursday.

Shetty said that NCP has been cheating the residents of Purandar for the past 40 years and the citizens should vote them out.

He advised Shivtare to leave the Gandhian way of fasting and resort to martyr Bhagat Singh’s way of agitating against the establishment. Khot said that even as NCP leader Sharad Pawar was projecting himself as the would be prime minister, he was not providing water to Purandar that is adjacent to his own Baramati Taluka.

Shivtare said that the indefinite agitation was all-party fight against the ruling establishment. He said that Pawar had assured in 2006 that Gunjawani dam would be completed in three months, but nothing had moved. He pointed out that NCP’s repeated false promises to the citizens of Purandar had forced him to launch the indefinite strike.