“Dark Secrets of Baramati ” -VJAS asked sharad pawar to resign

VIDARBHA JAN ANDOLAN SAMITI

11,Trisaranagar,Khamala,Nagpur-440025

Mobile-09422108846, VJAS BLOG-kishortiwari.blogspot.com,email-kishortiwari@gmail.com

Ref-Vidarbha Farmers Crisis Very Urgent Dated-10^th sept. 2009

To,

SHRI.SHARAD PAWAR,

AGRICULTURE MINISTER

GOVT.OF INDIA,

NEW DELHI-110011

REF : “Dark Secrets of Baramati ” News Item published by Pune Mirror

Sub- Request look at this News Item and resign from Post of union Agriculture and food supply to save Dying Indian farmers.

Respected sir,

Sadar Pranam,

Please find reproduced the article published by Pune Mirror after visiting your home place Baramati and it’s shocking to note that the grim situation of dying farmers their and this is matter of national shame for us but as per as this news item is very much concern to you that reflects the seriousness of distress that has spread throughout Maharashtra when you are Indian agriculture minister.

In last six year after you took charge of Agriculture Minister as main reason blowing of Indian agrarian crisis is that you promoted cash crop in place of food crop, very costly GM technology, free trade and wrong policies to protect MNCs and It’s fact that in last six year when more than 10000 farmers were killing themselves in Maharashtra we were too busy to attend this crisis because of your excessive involvement in cricket .

When you came to vidarbha in June 2005 to promote Bt.cotton after giving commercial trial permission to Monsanto company’s very costly seed ,you spoke about the aggressive farming practices and agrarian revolution in baramati but now truth is coming out it is not inline with fact as new item exposes your wild claims ,

I quote

Dark secrets of Baramati

Farmer suicides in Union Agri Minister Sharad Pawar’s home turf. Surviving kin not compensated even after a year, nor have their loans been waived under central scheme. This is Baramati’s untold story

By Nitin Brahme

http://www.punemirror.in/index.aspx?page=article&sectid=62&contentid=2009090920090909172622234d53b0336&sectxslt=#ftr2

The amount of politically-correct slogans about bettering the lot of farmers is endless. But the ground reality is totally different.

Even as the central government weaves new plans for drought-hit farmers, many of them are actually committing suicide. To make things worse, in the last two years many farmers have taken their own lives in Baramati, the stronghold of Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar. And add to that the fact that these farmers have not received any compensation, you have a rural India that is far from healthy or wealthy.

The amount of politicallycorrect slogans about bettering the lot of farmers is endless. But the ground reality is totally different.

Even as the central government weaves new plans for drought-hit farmers, many of them are actually committing suicide. To make things worse, in the last two years many farmers have taken their own lives in Baramati, the stronghold of Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar. And add to that the fact that these farmers have not received any compensation, you have a rural India that is far from healthy or wealthy. This reporter visited Baramati and saw the hopelessness first hand. If this is happening in Pawar’s own den, can the plight of farmers in far-off Vidarbha be any better? The much-hyped loan waiver scheme of the government has not done much to alleviate the pain of the ordinary farmer even in rich Baramati.

People say that Baramati is the most developed and politically important area of the state. However, the administration is not ready to admit that farmers have committed suicide in this important constituency. And even after a year of the suicides, the families of the dead farmers have not received any monetary help from government whatsoever. This reporter spent a couple of days in the villages adjacent to Morgoan-Baramati Road. The suffering families do not have decent houses to live in nor do they have the money to live a reasonably dignified life. And because the bread earner is dead, their social status has been chipped and their voices aren’t heard anymore.

The Mirror team met three such families, who have lost the man of the house to suicides due to pressure of debts and poverty.

THE JAGTAPS

Dada Sagaji Jagtap committed suicide on January 1, 2008. His village is Baburdi, which is near the Morgaon-Baramati Road. His mother Girijabai, who is 70 and ailing, pines for her son. Jagtap’s 40-year-old wife Alka and daughter-in-law Ashwini, who is just 23, are some how managing to trudge along the path of life. His sons, Sopan and Yogesh, are wandering around in search of work.

Alka said that her husband committed suicide because he could not repay a loan of just Rs 17,000. She said, “We used to have 32 acres of land, but it slipped out of our hands as debts increased. When he died, he had left our last four acres as collateral for a loan and the moneylender took the land from us. After his death, Dr Neelam Gorhe gave us Rs 25,000.

However, the government did not give us anything, nor was our loan waived. We don’t even know if our case is going on or not. We could not go to court because we do not have a single paisa.”Gorhe had collected the money for such farmers by taking vargani in the city.

Ashwini said that earlier they had a yellow ration card (which is given to those below the poverty line), but after her father-in-law’s death the government cancelled the ration card, and instead issued a saffron card. Now, the shopkeepers are not giving them any ration. Their nights go in darkness because they can’t pay their pending electricity bill.

THE SAWANTS

Somnath aka Anil Sawant, a 30-year-old farmer from Anjangaon committed suicide on August 1, 2008. After his death, his wife Surekha started working as an Anganwadi teacher. He is also survived by his three children and his mother. The Sawant family does not have any male member now. Sulochana, Somnath’s mother, said, “He took a loan of Rs 40,000 from a moneylender by pawning three acres of our land. He also borrowed Rs 25,000 from a co-operative society. After his suicide, Ajitdada (guardian minister Ajit Pawar) gave a job to my daughterin-law and the panchayat gave a home, under a below poverty line scheme. The government had promised us Rs 1 lakh compensation, but we heard that we they granted us just Rs 10,000.”

Sulochana also said that their loan was not waived, and their land is still mortgaged. The future, she says, is far too bleak.

THE KUMBHARS

Seventy-year-old Dattatreya Shambhudev Kumbhar committed suicide on April 11, 2009. He is survived by his wife Koshalya and two sons, Mukund and Somanath, and another relative. They live in Gunawadi, which is just half-akilometre from Baramati City.

Kumbhar’s daughter-in-law Usha said that he had three acres of land, but was pressed under a Rs 12 lakh loan. He had taken these loans from a bank, two cooperative societies and a some private moneylenders.

After his death, Ajit Pawar visited the village and gave the family Rs 1 lakh, but government has not yet bothered to waive their loan or compensate them.

UNQUOTE

Now I understand that it was wrong to blame you that you are not having time visit dying vidarbha farmers as it is clear from news item that you are not even serious look at the dying farmers of baramati your home turf.

PRAYER

You are kindly requested to resign from the post of union agriculture minister or replace it with your daughter supriya sule as you are too busy in other money matters and engineered so many wasted interests in cricket, commodity market, real-estate, promotion of MNCs .

Please do the needful and save dying Indian farmers

Thanking you,

Yours Faith Fully

Kishor Tiwari

President

Vidarbha Jan andolan Samiti

kishortiwari@gmail.com

kishortiwari.blogspot.com

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