War over wounded earth

For the BJP andthe Congress, the ravaged farmlands of Vidarbha represent a cxitieal battleground in their larger struggle to win Maharashtra

- KAVITHA IYER

Every vehicle passing the tehsil office of Tirora in Gondia district stirs up dust and fine sand, remnants from trucks ferrying loads from dredging pits along the Wainganga river, 30km away. With each roar of vehicle motors, a layer of dust settles on Nilesh Khobragade, 32, seated cross-legged in a tent opposite the office. A farm activist and former sarpanch of Indora Khurd village, Khobragade has been protesting, on and off, since June.

Seasons passed in these months, he said. He hosted a small Ganapati idol for 10 days in his tent, celebrated the Bail Pola festival, decorating a draught animal beside the tent, and observed Janmashtami. Even as the months passed, one thing remained constant: “Tragedy kept befalling small farmers and agricultural labourers,” he told THE WEEK. This year alone, farmers have suffered crop damage from harsh, sporadic rains, a flooded Wainganga in September, and wild boars trampling standing crops.

Khobragade has put forth 34 demands, including a few intriguing propositions such as 15,000 as subsidy for wages under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act to pay labourers during sowing and harvesting. With soybean prices plunging to 2011-12 levels, and paddy farmers forced to sell rice below the government-assured support price until procurement centres open, Khobragade and others in Tirora have a key demand for those aspiring to represent them in the Maharashtra assembly as the state goes to the polls on November 20: “Fix a fair minimum support price, and keep government procurement centres open year round.”