Cotton farmer Arun Sabane ridicule Cong.charge that his ‘Suicide Attempt is Political Drama’: VJAS activist meet him Govt. Hospital Yavatmal

Cotton farmer Arun Sabane ridicule Cong.charge that his ‘Suicide Attempt is Political Drama’: VJAS activist meet him Govt. in Hospital Yavatmal

Nagpur -5^th December 2011

A farmer attempted suicide while Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan was addressing a public meeting at Dhamangaon Railway in Amravati district on Sunday has termed the local Congress MLA charge that he was asked by BJP to do so as “Rubbish’ .

He was talking to farm activist Kishor Tiwari and Mohan Jadhav who visited Government Medical College Yavatmal today.

“If they know the hardship of cotton and soya farmers of region(vidarbha) then they can understand what ‘nonsense’ they are talking about ,we are dying and they are making mockery of our life this is too much. I have never taken single drop of liquor in my life but I am shocked when administration informed CM that drunkard farmer created drama for chip publicity ,this is insult of agrarian community at large .I wanted to request chief minister to give us higher MSP for cotton and soybean but congress workers manhandled me to take this extreme case ” informed Arun Devidas Sabane, 45, a farmer from Gokulsara village in Dhamangaon tahsil who stood up and asked the CM to talk about cotton price after being manhandled pulled out a white-colour bottle from his pocket and put it in his mouth ,some of farmers stopped him but little quantity of the liquid, however, got into his body then He was rushed to the local hospital and was later shifted to Government Medical College Yavatmal where he is fighting with his life .

The Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS), which is fighting for the cause of cotton growers in the region has urged the State Election Commission to relax the code of conduct imposed in view of the upcoming Municipal Council elections so that the Maharashtra government could announce a relief package for farmers in the state. State Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, last week had put on hold decision to announce a compensation package for cotton growers, a majority of them from Vidarbha region, citing the State Election Commission directives. Chavan, while stressing that he was sympathetic to the plight of cotton growers who have suffered heavy crop losses in several pockets of Vidarbha, expressed helplessness as the EC had not allowed any policy announcement because of the code that was in force for the December 8 elections to 196 municipal councils in the state, a VJAS release said today. VJAS president, Kishore Tiwari in a petition filed before the State Election Commissioner Neela Satyanarayan, has requested her to relax the model code and allow the state to extend relief to distressed cotton growers. The Samiti has requested Chavan to pay compensation of Rs 20,000 per hectare as difference in current purchase price and the actual cost of cotton cultivation. Pointing out that over a 1000 farmers have already committed suicide in the current year in the cotton belt, Tiwari has urged the poll panel chief that reports were submitted with the government from time to time warning of the impending crisis. Tiwari said in the plea that cotton procurement prices have not been revised substantially in last three years though input costs, including prices of seeds, fertilisers, labour costs had increased by about 40 per cent, the release added