While criticising the BJP without naming it, NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Sunday said that he shall speak about attempts to break parties at appropriate time.
“Those who want to break the party may do so. We shall reveal our stand if and when that happens,” Pawar said while talking to reporters at Amrawati in western Vidarbha.
This was the first time after his nephew and Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Ajit Pawar said at an open interview that he would like to become chief minister of the state and he can do so even now, Pawar senior was replying to questions related to the issue.
Pawar blames infra projects behind agricultural woes
Earlier in the day Pawar addressed the first convention of the Agriculture Graduates’ Forum where he blamed big-ticket infrastructure projects for causing stress to agriculture and appealed to the agriculture graduates to work on various problems faced by the farmers through the network of agriculture universities.
This was Sharad Pawar’s second visit to the region this month, which led to speculations that the octogenarian leader is eyeing the Vidarbha region as prospective new ground to strengthen the party’s base.
Pawar points out several farmer issues
In his speech at the convention, Pawar described various issues bothering the common farmer in India and the variety of remedies suggested since the times of social reformer Jyotiba Phule. Availability of water, fertilizers, issues related to productivity, new high-yielding varieties, availability of robust varieties, increasing farm productivity are some of the issues that he mentioned and narrated the efforts made to overcome the challenges.
However, now the land is being taken for several infrastructure projects. This is causing great stress to farmers, Pawar, who had worked as Union minister for agriculture and civil supplies between 2004 and 2014, said.
“While coming to Nagpur, I was watching the Samruddhi corridor from the plane. The project is indeed important. But, whose land is it where it has been built?” the leader questioned and added, “Farmers’ land is being acquired in a big way. This has led to reduction in land under agriculture and the people dependent upon agriculture."
