On June 20, the AIKS Nashik district council held a massive 25,000-strong rally on the Divisional Commissioner's office at Nashik. Thousands of peasants had come from all 15 tehsils of the district. An overwhelming number were Adivasi peasants. They included thousands of women and youth.
The call for this rally had been given at the AIKS Martyrs' Day public meeting of 10,000 peasants held on June 12 at Umbarthan in Surgana tehsil of Nashik district, that was addressed by Brinda Karat, Dr Ashok Dhawale and J P Gavit.
The main issues of the June 20 Nashik rally were the stringent implementation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) which is still extremely unsatisfactory even 16 years after the FRA was passed in 2006; scrapping of the proposed river linking scheme which will submerge several Adivasi villages in some districts in Maharashtra and Gujarat; demand for proper implementation of the PM Awaas Yojana (Housing Scheme), from which lakhs of applicants have been left out, and increase in the amount of the scheme to Rs 3 lakh per house; remunerative MSP to all crops and their procurement, with the price of onions having recently plummeted; and other demands.
Under the leadership of AIKS state Vice President J P Gavit, ex-MLA, a delegation met the District Collector, and held a discussion on the memorandum of demands. If these demands were not conceded, a warning was given to the government that the struggle would be intensified in the days ahead.
The huge public meeting that followed was presided over by AIKS President Dr Ashok Dhawale, and it was addressed by J P Gavit, CITU Vice President Dr D L Karad, AIKS State President Kisan Gujar, CITU State Vice President Sitaram Thombre, AIKS district leaders Savliram Pawar, Irfan Shaikh, Sunil Malusare, Subhash Choudhary, Bhika Rathod, and DYFI District President Indrajit Gavit.
This rally was excellently covered by all sections of the mainstream media and the social media.
