Nagpur, Oct 9 (Inditop.com) More than 200 farmers’ widows staged a silent protest near the venue of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s first election rally in Yavatmal in eastern Maharashtra Friday.
The widows, sporting white bands on their mouths, were kept away from the stage.
Later, the security personnel and some Congress leaders allowed a two-member delegation to meet Gandhi, said Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS) president Kishor Tiwari.
Bebitai Bais, the VJAS candidate from Wani, and Shantabai Waghmare met Gandhi near the helipad where he landed and briefed him about the plight of the 7,000-plus widows and some 30,000 orphans of farmers.
The two submitted a memorandum to Gandhi demanding pension for all the widows, ownership rights to the land owned by their husbands, foodgrain for the widows and their families, free higher education to the children and financial assistance for the marriages of the daughters.
Gandhi accepted the memorandum before addressing the rally, Tiwari said.
The Vidarbha region where farmers have committed suicide in large numbers includes Yavatmal, Nagpur, Akola, Gondia, Gadchiroli, Wardha, Amravati, Buldana, Washim, Bhandara and Chandrapur districts.
The Wani seat, where Bais is contesting, is in Yavatmal which has seen the maximum number of suicides by farmers in the past five years.
