Addressing a meeting of Congress activists, farmers and farm workers at tehsil office here, Thakre further said that people call this government as anti-farmer because it could not solve the problems being faced by farmers and farm workers till date. Speaking about the performance of the three and half years-old alliance government, he alleged that the State Government has been trying to impose urban culture in rural areas, thereby working for the destruction of rural culture.

Thakre accused the Shiv Sena-BJP combine of pushing the State in financial bankruptcy by making several misleading announcements. Describing the performance of the State Government as zero, Thakre alleged that the three and half years-old government only took efforts to exploit the religious sentiments of the people by organising saffron weekrecently.

Speaking on the occasion, Maharashtra Pradesh Mahila Congress Committee vice president Vijaya Ghode urged the farmers to forget the differences irrespective of their party and group and come together to fight for their genuine demands. Former MLA Prakash Patil Devsarkar, who had led the morcha, too criticised the government with a remark that it does not understand the problems of the farmers. The supply of urea by the government at the time of harvest of cotton ball pest affected crop is the indicative of its ignorance, he said. Devsarkar thanked the farmers and farm workers who participated in the morcha in large numbers despite heavy rains.

Earlier, Tehsil Congress Committee took out a morcha of Congress activists, farmers and farmers to tehsil office which culminated into a meeting there. Committee president Balwantrao Naik made the introductory remarks and spoke about the demands of farmers and farm workers. The demands include immediate payment for standing sugarcane crop of 1995-96,actual implementation of the announcement of power bill waiver before Diwali, to start cotton and soybean purchase at a rate of Rs 2500 and Rs 1500/quintal respectively before Diwali and implementation of the recommendations of Shrikrishna Commission.

Manikrao Thakre submitted a memorandum to this effect to resident tehsildar Bonde after the meeting. Prominent among those who participated in the morcha include Bapurao Dhule, Devrao Patil Kale, Bhimrao Chandravanshi and Bhaskar Govidwar.