Number of suicides in vidarbha region up to 572 this year -HT

Five farmers end lives in Vidarbha-Hindustan Times

Nagpur

Sorry State .Number of suicides in Vidarbha region up to 572 this year

pradipmaitra@hindustantimes.com

Nagpur-9^TH September 2010

At the time Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi was interacting with students of Punjabrao Agriculture University in Akola on Tuesday over measures to minimise farmers’ suicides, five more farmers ended their lives in the region. According to reports reaching here on Wednesday, among the victims, Hanuman Choudhary (48) is from Waiphad village in Wardha district where the Prime Minister,Manmohan Singh had visited in 2006 and asked the farmer store strain from taking such drastic steps.

It was said that Choudhary, a land-holder of 5-acre, was depressed because heavy rains in the past fortnight completely washed away the crop.A bank defaulter, Choudhary did not get crop loans from the bank this time and borrowed around Rs 60,000 from private moneylenders.When he saw the entire crop get damaged following torrential rains, depressed Choudhary ended his life by jumping into a well on Tuesday.

Talking to HindustanTimes, Vijay Jawandhia, the former president of Shetkari Sanghatana and a farmer of Waiphad village, that Choudhary was very depressed over the damage of cotton crop in his field due to recent heavy rains.“He attempted thrice to end the life by jumping into a village well for the last one week and finally killed himself on Tuesday,” he said.

According to him, almost all the defaulters in the region did not getthe crop loans fromthe bank this time despite an assurance from the government. “This had forced farmersto approach the money forced to approach the money lenders who all are charging exorbitant rate of interest, ”Jawandhia pointed out .

Kishore Tiwari of Vidarbha Janandolan Samit that has been documenting the farmers’ suicide since2001, blamed the state machinery for the on-going farm suicides in the region and demanded monetary help to farmers for fresh cultivation.

He claimed that five farmers in the region committed suicide in last 24 hours.

They were identified as: Hanuman Choudhary (48) of WaiphadinWardha district, Dilip Rajurkar(42), Savargaon, VijayPandhre (32), Pichgaon,Gangubai Ganphade (38) of Sangnapur (all in Yavatmal district) and Mahadeorao Wahane (62) of Mendhepathar in Nagpur district.

“We are assessing all these recent suicide cases and examining the reasons behind the step,” says Sanjay Deshmukh, district collector of Yavatmal district.

He admitted that around 180 farmers have committed suicide in Yavatmal district alone since January this year.

===============================================