11 August,2011 07:30 AM IST | | Kaumudi Gurjar
Villagers say Ajit Pawar did not visit families of those killed in firing
Emotions ran high against Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar yesterday morning as he paid a quick visit to Baur -- the scene of a farmer agitation that saw deaths dues to police firing -- and left for Mumbai without meeting the families of the deceased.
Gloomy Wednesday: Shyam Tupe's body is brought to his house before
the obsequies
Those who lost their near and dear ones in Tuesday's police firing were angry with Pawar for not bothering to pay a condolence visit. For relatives of Kanta Thakar, a woman from Yelse village, the state government was solely responsible for her death.
"Police aimed and then fired at Thakar," said Thakar's sister-in-law, who was also present for the agitation. Thakar is survived by her husband, three daughters and a son.According to her relatives, she was the sole earning member of her family. They said her husband was not in good health and could not work and their son was jobless.
Stir to continue
Yelse residents said they would fiercelyu00a0 continue their agitation after the loss of Thakar. Residents of Shivne village, from where the deceased Moreshwar Sathe hailed, expressed similar feelings.
Sathe, who owned less than an acre of land, worked as a tractor driver to make ends meet. Sathe is survived by a college-going daughter and a son. Like Thakar, Sathe was also the lone earning member of his family. Vasant Barku Garade from Shivne said Sathe was detained by the police and released after some time, but as he was walking towards the agitators he was shot from close range.
Garade denied the police version and claimed that gunshots were followed by tear gas. Garade said stone-pelting was a result of bullets being fired at them and not vice versa. For the Tupe family, losing Shyam Tupe was the latest in a string of hard blows for the family. The chain of tragedies for the family started with Tupe's father losing his job as a mill worker in Mumbai.
Then the family lost its land to the Expressway project. Now as the family has lost its land to the water pipeline project that was the cause of the farmer agitation. Maruti Deshmukh from Sadawali said losing an earning member was a huge blow to the Tupe family. Tupe is survived by his wife, a three-year-old son, his father and three younger brothers.
Witch-hunt alleged
Villagers from Yelse claim that after Tuesday's agitation, the police have detained 200-250 villagers overnight. According to them, the police will show these people as having been arrested from the spot where the agitation took place. Villagers said that the police were picking up people randomly and were likely to claim they were protesters.
