arrangement was made for meals and stay of about hundred participants at Dabewala Dharmashala, with whom Joshi had good relations, since majority of those famous Dabewalas, who carried daily meals to office-goers in Mumbai, came from Bhamnahar Valley. That was the first-ever training programme Joshi organized and it was highly effective. It formed the pattern for many such programmes in future. Next week Joshi went to Nifad for the visit Nirgude had planned. Nifad received water from five dams. Onion and Sugarcane were the main crops and Pimpalgaon Baswant was the main market. The farmers were severely affected by the collapse of onion prices that year and the farmers of Nifad had organized their own rasta roko on Bombay-Agra Highway. It happened on 19 March 1980. It was under the leadership of Madhavrao Khanderao More, a leading farmer and powerful speaker. In that rasta roko struggle he himself was thrashed by the Police and it was a miracle that he survived. There was also police firing in which two farmers were killed and eight wounded. SS had strongly condemned the police atrocities and Joshi had visited Pimpalgaon personally to review the situation. Nifad Cooperative Sugar Factory was one of the largest in Maharashtra. There was a school inside the factory complex called K. K. Wagh Vidya Mandir and at that school the meeting was organized for Joshi to speak. It was at 2 pm on 15 April. While no concrete plan of action emerged, the response was fairly good and the seed of the SS was sowed in Nashik. Nirgude and Joshi felt it was better to have some big action in Nifad after due preparations and for that 15 August was the date they thought of. To plan for that Joshi arrived in Nifad on the 12 August. Series of public meetings were planned. Nirgude also took Joshi to meet Madhavrao More at his residence in Pimpalgaon. Both had heard of each other but had never actually 120
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Sharad Joshi : Leading Farmers to the Centre Stage
