States » WestPosted at: Oct 17 2026 8:30PM


Farmers leader censures Maha CM over his decision to impose ban on lifting of water from rivers

Kolhapur, Oct 17 (UNI) Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS) national president and former MP, Raju Shetty, today slammed Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for having imposed a ban on pumping of water from the rivers for sugarcane, without any regard to interests of farmers, by succumbing to pressure from the central leadership.
Shetty alleged in a press release here that this decision was not in interests of farmers in the state and taken due to pressure from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and union Home & Cooperation minister Amit Shah.
"Seeing that farmers are not yielding to pressure, the state government has imposed a ban on sugarcane harvesting with an aim to dry the farmers' sugarcane and restore its supply to factories. We will thwart this. If a situation arises where farmers' crops are damaged, then the process of starting sugar miills will be taken forward," he said.
He said that 95 per cent of sugar factories in the state were closed and alleged that the Chief Minister took this decision under pressure so that the sugarcane farmers would let the sugar factories to start immediately, instead of seeing their crop get dry.
"However, we will never tolerate this decision," he maintained.
He demanded that the state government should immediately withdraw the ban on harvesting, otherwise the embankments will be removed and water will be released into the river, he warned.
The SSS chief further demanded that the government should present a dam-wise account to the public of how much live water stock is available in the dams of western Maharashtra, how much of it is reserved for drinking, how much water is approved for industrial use and for agriculture.
"There is no question of allowing sugar factories in the state to re-open at this juncture. Currently, only five per cent of the factories are operating in the state with the recovery of sugarcane is eight per cent, so who will compensate the farmers for their losses," Shetty demanded to know.
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