He has been inducted into the Empowered Group of Ministers to negotiate the terms of the Rs 30,000 crore loan waiver that the Sena is opposed to
Raote has been added to the EGoM by CM Fadnavis for his knowledge on agriculture
On the one hand, Shiv Sena has been strong-arming the BJP government for a complete loan waiver for farmers instead of that announced by CM Devendra Fadnavis for the small and marginal farmers, on the other, Sena's own Diwakar Raote has been appointed to the promised Empowered Group of Ministers to negotiate the terms with the farmers.
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Last week, the Sena ministers had boycotted the Cabinet meeting on the grounds that the CM was taking decisions on the waiver unilaterally, without taking the opinion of his allies into consideration at all.
Sole Sena sainik
However, Raote, who is believed to have better knowledge of agriculture than his colleagues will now be part of the panel, headed by Fadnavis' number two and revenue minister Chandrakant Patil along with other BJP leaders Pandurang Phundkar (agriculture), Sudhir Mungantiwar (finance), Subhash Deshmukh (cooperation) and Girish Mahajan (water resources). This panel has been tasked with listening to the farmers' demands and submitting a proposal to the government. The deadline for implementing the R30,000-crore loan waiver is October 31 - the day this government completes three years in office.
“I'm of the opinion that all issues can be resolved with discussion. My government is ready to hold a series of discussion with farmers' leaders. The ministers will be empowered to propose what they deem fit and I expect the farmers' leaders to also find a way out through discussion,” Fadnavis told mid-day on Friday.
Fadnavis has already appointed a group of bureaucrats under Pune divisional commissioner Chandrakant Dalvi to study loan waivers in states like Uttar Pradesh, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh along with the measures and mechanism needed to increase productivity of Maharashtra agriculture.
Farmers advance deadline
Meanwhile, a core committee of farmers - a revised committee that came into existence after a different set of leaders discussed the waiver with the CM - has set a 48-hour deadline for the government of which 24 hours are already gone, to meet their demands.
They have reportedly decided to intensify agitation across the state from June 12 in case the government does not meet their demands for a complete loan waiver and implementation of the Swaminathan recommendations of assured price.
However, with the formation of the EGoM, the government doesn't look like it will buckle under pressure. An additional factor is that with the agitation split in various factions and the police on high alert to avert any high-risk situation, the state may not face the same difficulties as it did last week when supplies across the urban cities were crippled.
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