Maharashtra govt not concerned about farmers despite delayed monsoon: VBA's Prakash Ambedkar

Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi chief Prakash Ambedkar on Monday said the Maharashtra government was not concerned about farmers despite the agriculture sector being in distress due to problems in sowing caused by delay in monsoon.

He said Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CMs Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar addressed a press conference on Sunday but farmer issues were kept for the end.

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"The question remains whether the state government knows about the issue of repeat sowing and whether it is offering help to farmers," he said.

Asked about the Nationalist Congress Party faction under Ajit Pawar meeting party supremo Sharad Pawar in Mumbai on Sunday, the VBA chief said "I would like to say that Ajit Pawar will have to celebrate this Diwali alone, but next year, they will celebrate as one family."

He also said his party will not enter into an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

"However, since other parties are still not able to decide (about alliance with VBA) we cannot take the decision on whom to ally with," he claimed.

He was speaking to reporters after appearing before the inquiry commission probing the violence that took place in Koregaon Bhima on January 1, 2018 post the 'Elgar Parishad' conclave in Pune a day earlier.

"The commission has asked me to file a detailed affidavit on the points I have raised. I will submit my affidavit by July 24. The commission will go through my affidavit and, if it wants, it can allow me to conduct a cross-examination," he said.

Ambedkar claimed there was a lapse in passing on information in the case similar to the one in the 26/11 terror attack on Mumbai.

"My demand is that important people should be summoned before the commission. The then chief minister (Devendra Fadnavis) was 40 kilometres away from the site where the incident took place. At what time he and the then chief secretary got information," he said.

There should be a probe to find if pamphlets opposing the congregation were fake or genuine, he said, adding that all these issues will be included in his affidavit.

Last month, Ambedkar had written to the commission urging it to summon Fadnavis and sought permission to cross examine the latter.

In the letter, he also sought permission to cross-examine then additional CS Sumit Mullick and then Pune Superintendent of Police Suvez Haque.