AHMEDABAD: Unseasonal rains have once again plunged Gujarat’s farmlands into crisis, flooding fields and devastating livelihoods. Across the Saurashtra region, despair has turned into defiance as farmers rally for relief and accountability.
As protests erupted across the Saurastra region, Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel convened an emergency high-level meeting in Gandhinagar. He directed officials to act with full sensitivity and urgency, stressing that the government must stand shoulder-to-shoulder with farmers not with words of sympathy, but with swift and substantial action.
Agriculture Minister Jitubhai Vaghani and Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghvi joined the meeting virtually, reviewing district-wise reports of damage. Patel noted that Gujarat had not witnessed such untimely downpours in two decades and ordered immediate field assessments, generous compensation, and a pro-farmer approach to every relief measure.
Taking that directive to heart, Sanghvi stepped into the fields of Saurashtra to meet those hit hardest. Walking barefoot through soaked paddies, he listened to farmers who watched their year’s effort dissolve in the relentless rain.
Still, anger simmered across villages. In Trapaj of Talaja taluka, Bhavnagar district, farmers gathered at the Gram Panchayat office, demanding direct financial assistance instead of online surveys. “Stop the paperwork, start the help,” read their appeal.
Meanwhile, protests in Amreli district swelled into mass rallies. Led by the Khambha Kisan Sangh and the Sarpanch Association, farmers marched to the Mamlatdar’s office, staging symbolic road blockades to protest bureaucratic delays and to demand debt waivers for those most affected by the eight-day deluge.
From Gandhinagar’s boardrooms to Amreli’s rain-soaked roads, the contrast is stark—the administration pledging compassion, and farmers demanding urgency. As the Chief Minister promises timely action and thorough surveys, one question continues to echo across Gujarat’s drenched heartland: when will relief arrive not as words, but as deliverance?
