Farmers' march: government appointed task force writes to PM

A task force appointed by Maharashtra government has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to relook into the status of the government's agrarian programme to resolve farmers'  issues in drylands of the country.

"The farmers' march has once again brought burning issue of ongoing agrarian crisis -- cost of cultivation, failure of state-run financial institutes to give timely and sufficient credit to debt trapped dying farmers, market intervention and poor relief and rehabilitation machinery and schemes," said Kishor Tiwari, the chairman of Vasantrao Naik Shetkari Swavalamban Mission, a government-appointed task force.
 
In a letter to Modi, Tiwari, who has been working with the farmers, particularly in Vidarbha region for decades, seem to have come out in support of BJP leadership but blamed bureaucrats and administrative machinery for the crisis.
 
"There are disturbing facts which are fueling the prevailing unrest in the agrarian community. Even as the BJP state leadership has been trying it's level best to address the core issues but hostile and unaccountable babus and administration failed to provide any relief to distress and needy farmers that has largely created an atmosphere of non-confidence among farmers," Tiwari said.
 
In the letter, he said Maharashtra government had started working on core issues raised in Swaminathan Commission report related to the areas of land, water, bio-resources, credit and insurance, technology and knowledge management, and markets aggressively. "The ground reality is that the government programme did not reach small and needy farmers," he said.