The second edition of the Kisan long march was withdrawn on Thursday at around 11:30 pm after a four-hour long meeting between the core committee members of the All India Kisan Sabha (CPM faction) and representatives from the Maharashtra government, namely, Girish Mahajan and Jaykumar Rawal, reached an amicable solution.

The government has agreed to meet the demands of the protesting farmers and have also submitted a stamped draft of the demands accepted by them to AIKS on Thursday night.

Speaking with Newslaundry, Ashok Dhawale, National President of AIKS and a member of the core team, said: “We had already told them (government) before to get the agreement in writing. The ministers first came at 4 pm with the agreement. We went through each and every line and paragraph of the agreement and saw that many of the demands, which they had actually agreed to on three previous occasions (two with chief ministers and one with Girish Mahajan) were not there in the agreement which they brought with them on Thursday.”

“After going through the agreement that they had drafted, we insisted on making changes in the agreement by including all those things which they had previously agreed on during our meetings with them but hadn’t included it in the agreement they brought with them on Thursday. We suggested changes and additions. A long discussion took place but they finally accepted them,” said Dhawale.

Ever since the AIKS had held a press conference about carrying out a Kisan long march from Nashik to Mumbai on February 4, it has had three meetings with Maharashtra government representatives. The first two were held in the presence of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on February 11 and February 17 and the third one was held with minister Girish Mahajan on the night of February 20, the very same day when tribal farmers had gathered in thousands at Mumbai Naka in Nashik to commence their march. During the course of these three negotiation meetings, the government had agreed to the farmers’ demands–but had not made this known through any sort of written agreement.

Dhawale said after they had added the necessary changes in the draft agreement, the agreement was digitally sent to Mantralay officials at night via a computer that was available in a factory based out of Vilholi, the place where the meeting between AIKS and the government had taken place. Mantralaya officials, who were waiting at the ministry, made the final draft with the required changes asked by AIKS and sent it back. After receiving the final draft, a meeting of all the office bearers of AIKS (Maharashtra) took place. It was here that they approved the final draft and collectively decided to withdraw the march.

“The most important thing is that we insisted on a review implementation machinery, which they have committed to; every two months, they, along with AIKS, are going to review the progress. This commitment has actually never happened–until now. It is an unprecedented thing that has developed and they (government) have not made this kind of a commitment with anyone else. They have realised that we mean business.”

Earlier, AIKS has made 15 demands to the government including  proper implementation of the Forest Rights Act across Maharashtra, the stopping of rainwater washing away from the rivers in Nashik district into Gujarat, a complete loan waiver for farmers, and to increase the pension for elderly and widows under the Sanjay Gandhi Niradhar Yojna up to Rs 3,000, along with issuing of new ration cards.

AIKS informed Newslaundry that the government has agreed to most of their demands.

JP Gavit, CPM MLA from Surgana-Kalvan constituency in Nashik who is also a core committee member of AIKS, said: “They have accepted most of our demands. After every two months, review meetings will take place between AIKS and the government. We have been assured that they will conduct a workshop of collectors and SDO every two to three months and will train them to follow the Nashik model since it has the best implementation of the Forest Rights Act. They also told us that they could not announce increasing the pension under Sanjay Gandhi Niradhar Yojna (the current pension is at Rs 600) but would discuss it in the budget in the upcoming assembly session and will announce it in the session itself.

“They had told us before that they would discuss the issue of waiving the 2016-17 loan(s) in the budget session and have also agreed to issue new ration cards in rural areas,” said Gavit. According to him, 80% of their demands have been met and the rest were being considered.

After the meeting was concluded, ministers from the Maharashtra government, Mahajan and Rawal, addressed the tribal farmers at night, all of whom had halted at Vilholi (within the limits of Nashik rural) after starting their march from Mumbai Naka in Nashik. The ministers made a public announcement about accepting their demands in the stamped agreement and also spoke of the review meeting that would be held every two months to gauge the progress of the implementation of demands.