Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar on Sunday met the kin of a farmer who had allegedly committed suicide on September 17 after leaving behind a note in which he had wished Prime Minister Narendra Modi on this birthday.
Dashrath Lakshman Kedari (42) had ended his life in Junnar tehsil in Pune allegedly due to not receiving minimum support price (MSP) for his produce and, in his note, had asked the PM to guarantee remunerative prices for onions, police had said at the time.
Pawar claimed the farm laws enacted by the Union government were beginning to have an impact on the country's horticulture sector, leading to such suicides.
Tweeting about his visit to Kedari's kin, Pawar said, "The farm laws made by central government is now having an impact on horticulture farming. Thus, farmers like Kedari are forced to commit suicide. This incident is unfortunate. A farmer is feeder of masses and he should be respected."
He asked the Eknath Shinde government to provide aid to the farmer's kin, adding the Centre and the ruling dispensation in Maharashtra must pay "immediate attention to the problems of the farmers and solve them".
Pawar also attended the Adivasi Samaj Prabodhan Melava in the district and said tribals continued to struggle despite several laws being enacted for their emancipation.
(With PTI Inputs)
