Sharad Joshi to head Agricultural Task Force

Sharad Joshi to head Agricultural Task Force
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

AURANGABAD, JULY 24: Shetkari Sanghatana leader Sharad Joshi will take charge as the head of the newly formed Agriculture Task Force on August 1 in New Delhi.

Making the announcement here last evening, Joshi said he had accepted the office only after detailed discussions with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who convinced him that the task force would have sufficient teeth to function.

Joshi said the task force would work to formulate a new agriculture policy and have on its board, three ministers, eight Union secretaries and a host of Members of Parliament. The board will have representation from as many as six farmers' organisations in the country and such names had already been submitted to the Government, Joshi said.

Joshi had worked with the World Bank, before returning home to built one of the strongest farmers' platform in the country. Last month, however, he received a severe jolt when senior leaders of the Sanghatana quit the forum to join the Nationalist Congress Party. It was one of the biggest split in the history of the Sanghatana.

Joshi's announcement came even as Shetkari Sanghatana and its political outfit Swatantra Bharat Party passed a series of resolution registering their strong opposition to the proposed Water Management and Control Bill, the new prices for procurement for cotton announced by the monopoly purchase federation and the State Government's drive against major defaulters (among farmers) of the electricity payment.