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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