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Vidarbha farmers demand minister's dismissal


Farmers in Maharashtra's Vidarbha region have urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to sack Vilasrao Deshmukh as Union Heavy Industries Minister, after the Supreme Court ruled he misused his authority to protect a Congress legislator's money-lender father who charge exorbitant interest rates.

"Local legislators are getting police protection with the help of top leaders and are exploiting the debt-trapped farmers who are committing suicide," Kishor Tiwari, president of Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti, told Gulf News.

Tiwari's organisation represents farmers who are fighting for their rights.

Legal action

"We have requested the prime minister to sack Deshmukh and take legal action against him."

The apex court on Tuesday came down heavily on the union minister for preventing police from registering a criminal complaint against Congress legislator Dilipkumar Sananda's father Gokulchand Sananda, a private money-lender.

The complaint had been filed in 2006 by Sarnagdharsingh Chavan and his brother Vijaysingh Chavan who had said they took a loan from Sananda but were unable to pay it back due to the high interest he charged.

The two brothers also said they took the loan after pawning their farm land to Sananda who confiscated it when they failed to pay back the loan.

The Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court had imposed a fine of 25,000 rupees (Dh2,008.57) on the state government in March 2009 following a petition by a group of Buldhana district farmers alleging that the police refused to register a criminal case against the Sananda.

The court had imposed the fine after finding "gross interference from the executive" in shielding a private financier belonging to the ruling party.

The apex court levied a fine of one million rupees on the state government on Tuesday.

"The [former] chief minister should not have interfered with the criminal justice system," said Justices G. S. Singhvi and A. K. Ganguly of the apex court.

"The interference was caused first from office of the chief minister by his private secretary by two telephone calls on May 31 2006 and the manner in which the district collector was summoned by the chief minister on the very next for giving instruction to specially treat any complaints against MLA Dilip Kumar Sanada," the court said.