Solapur farmers threaten to disrupt CM’s visit to Pandharpur on Ashadi Ekadashi if Shaktipeeth is not cancelled

Kolhapur: Farmers from Solapur’s Madha tehsil held a protest march against the proposed Pavnar to Patradevi (Nagpur-Goa) Shaktipeeth Expressway on Tuesday outside the Madha tehsil office, and threatened to disrupt chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’s visit to Pandharpur for Ashadi Ekadashi on July 26.As per the new alignment, the highway passes through Madha tehsil of Solapur district, goes further into Satara district, Kolhapur district, before entering the Konkan region and ending at Patradevi, located at Maharashtra-Goa border.The ground survey of the alignment has started in Solapur district under heavy police protection. On Tuesday, at Karkamb in Pandharpur tehsil, hundreds of farmers gathered at the survey site. The surveyors left the site without carrying out the day’s task.At Madha, a large number of farmers agitated to protest the recent allegations made against them — about destroying survey equipment, physical attack on the surveyors and police — and marched to the tehsil office.Sanjay Patil Ghatnekar, the convenor of the forum of farmers opposing the highway, said, “The farmers will lose their grape orchards, they will lose the pipelines and houses. Some hamlets will be erased out of the map if the Shaktipeeth expressway is allowed. Therefore, we strongly oppose the highway. None of the farmers wanted the highway. It is being forced upon us, making us landless in the end. We want CM Devendra Fadnavis to cancel the highway, or we will stop him from performing puja at the Vitthal-Rukhimi temple on Ashadi Ekadashi day,” said Ghatnekar.On Ashadi Ekadashi, the main puja is performed in presence of chief minister of state at Pandharpur’s Vittha-Rukhmini temple.