Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Four more Vidarbha Farmers Suicides in a Day –last 45 Days 202 farmers killed in drought hit Maharashtra

Four more Vidarbha Farmers Suicides in a Day –last 45 Days 202 farmers killed in drought hit Maharashtra  
 Dated -19th February 2015
As Vidarbha reports four more innocent aid starved distressed farmers suicides as Forty-five days of 2015 drought hit Vidarbha 108 and Marathwada 94  reported  202 farm suicides, whereas same region had reported 1833 in 2014. As per official report ill-fated four vidarbha farmers who killed themselves are Gajanan Khandare of Khillari in Aamravati, Laxman Divare of Hivlani in Yavatmal ,Shankar Shende of Torgoan in Chandrapur and Bhika Kawale of Kesapur in Buldhana . The delay in distribution of relief aid and complete apathy of Govt. are the biggest reason for the farmers to take the extreme step Besides, the vicious cycle of crop loan in combination with very low market price of main cash crop cotton ,paddy and soybean    erratic monsoon in the region leaves the farmers with no option but to take the extreme step, informed  Kishor Tiwari of Vidarbha Janandolan Samit(VJAS) ,farm activist group who are documenting farmers suicides since 1997. When this year  Maharashtra the government officially declared that 60% of its villages were facing a severe drought of the century affecting almost 90 lakh farmers in state 23,811 of the state's 39,453 villages come in this category after complete kharif crop has been damaged adding fueled to existing farm crisis in the region where the highest number of farmer’s suicides reported in the country hence to address the very acute issue of farmers suicides it is critical time for  Indian Govt to provide time bound budgetary allocation to address agrarian crisis  on with complete focus on credit ,cost and crop issues which are only responsible rural economic crisis  but even after humiliating defeat in recent New Delhi election finance minister announcement to continue economic reforms  forth coming budget  unlikely  to address core issues of Indian rural crisis, Tiwari added.
Last week only  Indian supreme court has shown serious concern over ongoing farmers suicides now on Monday taking suo motu cognizance of the newspaper reports that the Maharashtra government had denied compensation to the families of more than 2,700 farmers who have committed suicide since 2011 because of agricultural distress, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has asked the state government to explain its position within two weeks. When state Govt. has turned blind eye to Indian govt. too has rubbed slat to wounds of 9 million drought hit dying farmers by sanctioning  only Rs 500 crore of the Rs 4,500 crore assistance demanded by the state government to tackle the problem after exactly 3 months resulting more than 500 farmers suicides in Vidarbha and Marathawada  region ,this is mockery  of agrarian crisis and reflects apathy of NDA Govt. toward farmer suicide issue ,Tiwari said
VJAS has insisted finance ministry to provide much needed integrated plan which will the major demands of the farmers include- minimum support price (MSP) for cotton and soybean to match the cost of production with a 50 % profit margin, new crop loan to farmers after waiving their existing debt dues, bringing new technology in agriculture and irrigation. The provisions Financial assistance for farm widows and higher education facilities to their wards along with food security and health security to distressed agrarian community should to part such solution plan which will stand in line with promises given by PM Modiji,  Tiwari added in letter  to Indian Finance minister .





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