Six more vidarbha farmers’ suicides in alst 48 hours as forcible recovery of bank and Electricity Com. along with price crash in soybean and cotton

Six more vidarbha farmers’ suicides in alst 48 hours as forcible recovery of bank and Electricity Company along with price crash in soybean and cotton

Nagpur, Oct 27, 2010

As bank recovery team of Land Development Bank humiliated Mahadeo Mahalle of village kopari in Yavatmal who liked himself along with five other debt trapped farmers in vidarbha in last 48 hours taking toll to 638 in year 2010,

the recent victims of vidarbha agrarian crisis are

1.Kawadu Kamdi of Dhanora in Yavatmal

2.Prakash Ghogare of Pohana in Wardha

3.Shankar Thawari of Sheogoan in chandrapur

4.Pradip Londhe of Sati in Chandrapur

5.Kisan Surve of Pimpri in Washim

6.Mahadev Mahalle of Kopari in Yavatmal

These suicides are being triggered by state Govt. as they have restarted forcible recovery drive of bankers debt and started forcible recovery of last five years agriculture pump bills after disconnecting the power supply more over there is price crash in soybean and cotton as central Govt. failed to start it’s procurement centers of cotton and soybean and distressed vidarbha farmers who have already lost crop in more than 6 million acres is the main cause of these suicides, Kishor Tiwari of Vidarbha Janandolan Samiti(VJAS )informed in press release today

Yesterday only thousands Farmers from Vidarbha and Marathwada regions gathered in pandharkawada to hold Maharashtra's first 'Kapus Parishad' (Cotton Conclave) where they passed unanimous resolution to march towards the official residence of maharashtra Ashok chavan in Nagpur on the first day of ‘Nagpur assembly session’ and will start indefinite fast undo death agitation scheduled to start second week of next month if there demand of higher prices for cotton and relaxation in export policy are not fulfilled , an activist said here Sunday. The resolution of moved by one of the farm widow Arpana Malikar and supported by thousands of wet drought hit dying cotton farmers of vidarbha the region where more than 8000 cotton farmers committed suicides due on going agrarian crisis, informed Kishor Tiwari, president of Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS), organizer of Maharashtra's first 'Kapus Parishad' (Cotton Conclave) demanding the urgent intervention of the government's intervention in increasing the prices of raw cotton from the minimum support price (MSP) of Rs.3,000 per quintal to Rs.4,500 per quintal.

'Cotton is the biggest cash crop grown in Vidarbha region and some parts of Marathwada and Khandesh. The crop's price virtually decides the fate of three million families in Maharashtra, the biggest cotton producing state, this right time to give policy boost up by increasing minimum support price and giving export incentive so that more than 3 million distressed farmers can grt rid of despair and sad saga of farmers suicides will come to end ' said Kishor Tiwari, president of VJAS while opening the Maharashtra's first 'Kapus Parishad' (Cotton Conclave) .

Tiwari said the central and the state governments have indicated that they would not be in a position to pay over Rs.3,000 a quintal as the minimum procurement price, a rate fixed two years ago this is unfair as input costs have gone up in the last two years and so is the inflation., open market prices are already ruling all time high at over Rs.5,000 a quintal,' he said.

'It has to be essentially understood that if the farmers will not to able to pay back the debt, there will be more farmer suicides,' he added.

The Maharashtra's first 'Kapus Parishad' (Cotton Conclave) presided by veteran farm activist Vijay Jawandhia and high lighted the plights of the cotton farmers and said that 'While there are clear indications that prices may firm up in international market mainly because crops in Pakistan and China have been ruined due to floods, the farmers here could take advantage of the situation and export cotton to the countries like China and Bangladesh, where there is high demand for short staple cotton that we produce,

Demanding that the MSP be hiked to Rs.4,500, he said such a step could improve the state's economy too.

The conference was attended by thousands of farm widows of farmers from Vidarbha and Marathwada regions is first signal to Indian Govt. that farmers unrest will get more fuel if their demands are not addressed in near future ,Tiwari said.

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