Kadu agrees to shift farmers' protest from Nagpur highway; to meet CM in Mumbai

Nagpur, Oct 29 (PTI) Former MLA Bachchu Kadu who is leading a massive protest for farm loan waiver here on Wednesday evening said they will vacate the national highway and move to a nearby ground, and he will decide the future course of action after meeting Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday.

The development came after the Bombay High Court directed the protesters, who had blocked National Highway 44 near Nagpur city, to leave the site by 6 pm, and ministers Pankaj Bhoyar and Ashish Jaiswal subsequently held discussions with the protestors.

Bhoyar told the protestors that they were carrying the chief minister's message asking them to come to Mumbai for discussions.

After hectic talks between the ministers and the protesting farmers led by Kadu, farmer leader Raju Shetti and others, Kadu told the media and the farmers that they will vacate the highway (also called Nagpur -Wardha road) and shift to a ground nearby. The future course of the agitation will be decided after meeting chief minister Fadnavis in Mumbai on Thursday, he added.

Earlier, after the High Court's direction to vacate the protest site by 6 pm, Kadu, leader of the Prahar Janshakti Party and a former state minister, said they would not commit a contempt of the court's order, but would court arrest and go to jail.

Thousands of people including farmers and workers of Prahar Janshakti Party staged the Maha Elgar Morcha and blocked the highway, demanding a full farm loan waiver.

The high court, taking suo motu notice of newspaper reports about a 20-km long traffic jam on the highway and inconvenience to the people, said the protesters were violating the people's fundamental right to move anywhere in the country.

Kadu, meanwhile, said the protest had not ended. If the talks with the government in Mumbai yielded no good result, they might stage a `rail roko' agitation on October 31, he warned.

Chief Minister Fadnavis had in the morning appealed Kadu to discuss farmers' issues with the government instead of holding agitations that inconvenience the public and could be exploited by "vested interests".

On the loan waiver demand, he said, "The state government has already formed a committee to look into the issue. Our priority at present is to help farmers who have suffered losses due to heavy rains. We have never said we are against farm loan waiver." Notably, farmers, especially those in central Maharashtra, have suffered massive losses due to the unprecedented rains in September. PTI CLS SP SPK KRK