Mumbai, June 21 (IANS): The Maharashtra Congress on Friday launched a state-wide ‘chikkhal phenko’ (mudslinging) agitation to protest against the 'anti-people' policies of the state and Central governments.
State Congress President Nana Patole said the campaign aims to highlight the high inflation, growing unemployment, falling law and order, the recent NEET paper leaks, and other failures of the MahaYuti and the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA governments.
“The Centre and the state are making merry after abandoning the people. Law and order have completely collapsed in the state, while runaway inflation and joblessness have made it difficult for people to survive,” said Patole.
There is rampant black-marketing of seeds and fertilisers due to which the poor farmers are being looted in the state but the government is doing nothing, he claimed.
To draw the government's attention to these 'burning' problems, the Congress organised a ‘mudslinging’ drive in different districts across the state.
Hundreds of party workers poured muddy water on effigies symbolising the government, raised slogans, and demanded the administration take immediate note of the people's sufferings.
The agitation was carried out in Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Kolhapur and other parts of the state.
Speaking to the media, Patole alleged that through the direct bank transfer scheme, various farming aids like pesticides, sprays, fertilisers and medicines are given to the farmers, but the government hiked the prices of spray pumps from Rs 2,700 to Rs 4,500, while other items are also being purchased at higher rates.
Though the Centre has increased the MSP for some crops, the hike is very meagre compared to the inflation, considering the high prices of diesel, fertilisers, seeds and other agriculture inputs, thus leaving the farmers with nothing, he pointed out.
The state is gripped by a severe drought in which the farmers have suffered huge losses, but the government is terming it a ‘drought-like’ situation, thus mocking their plight even as the rains have been delayed, Patole claimed.