Distressed after‘PM’s disappointing Man-ki-Baat’ Six more Vidarbha farmers killed themselves in last 48 Hours

Distressed after‘PM’s disappointing Man-ki-Baat’ Six more Vidarbha farmers killed themselves in last 48 Hours

25^th March 2015 

With No mention of farm loan waiver and issue of giving Higher Minimum Support Price(MSP) as promised in last election and using official media to mobilize public opinion for his controversial land bill in Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing to distressed  farmers in his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ series on All India Radio ,has added fuel in distress and despair as six more ill fated innocent six  farmers killed themselves in last 48 hours taking toll 184 in year  2015 in vidarbha alone ,Kishore Tiwari, president of the farmer advocacy group Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS)  informed in press release today.

The recent six farm victims of vidardha agrarian crisis are 1.Raju Dehne of village Runhka in Wardha and 2.Gajanan Mangulkar of Amarapur in Amravati 3.Tanba Todsam of Borgoan in Yavatmal  4.Ganesh Sonune of village Jandol in Buldhana and 5.Dadarao Umale of Wadad and 6.Suresh Ingle of Jagri both from Akola district ,Tiwari informed

‘PM has just rubbed salt to the wound of starving farmers when  Maharashtra state government officially declared that 60 per cent of its villages were facing a "severe drought" of the century, last year, affecting almost 90 lakh farmers in state. 23,811 of state's total 39,453 villages fall under this category after complete kharif crop was damaged, there is international recession in cotton as global market and demand has been dropped and this will effect more than 40 million cotton farmers cultivating cotton in more than 12 million hector mostly dry land farmers hence union budget  is talking big mega investment infrastructure and long term credit but failed to address core issues of giving direct relief package to these 40 million cotton farmers who are victims of global open market economy and mismatched demand supply situation ,NDA has   sidelined the rural and agrarian crisis from its priority list When poor are demanding food under universal PDS and farmers are killing themselves due to debt and poor prices of agriculture produce,. This will make life of poor and farmer’s miserable, VJAS president, Kishore Tiwari, added.

Once again new NDA Govt. has failed to give any healing touch in his policy road map budget -2015 distressed 3 million dry land farmers which are growing cash crop like cotton and soybean in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra as there is no announcement of fulfilling   PM Narendra Modi pre-poll promises on farm loan waiver and giving higher MSP according to a proposed formula of investment plus 50 per cent returns as indicated earlier that BJP is treating the issue of minimum support price (MSP) and waiver of farm loans as a 'Kisan-Jumla' (empty election promise) as there is no budgetary provisioning and plan to address the acute agrarian crisis with focus on credit, cost and crop issues hence to stop farmers suicides, a key farmers' advocacy group in the drought-prone Vidarbha region, Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS) said in a press statement.

It was made clear earlier Budget-2015 that NDA Govt. is not  serious to address the core issue of crisis that are better cost and credit as it was reflected RBI Governor’s statement that all earlier farm loan waiver packages have failed to provide relief and such packages would add to banks' NPAs and  Indian Govt. an affidavit in the Supreme Court said the government cannot give the MSP on the basis of the BJP's proposed formula of investment plus 50 per cent returns as it goes contrary to all existing formulae of the Commission on Agriculture Costs and Prices, this is very unfortunate as central Govt. failed to understand serious gravity of Vidarbha agrarian crisis when region has reported   1,160 farmers suicides in Maharashtra in 2014, and 124 in 2015 (till date), it was high time that the Centre looks at agrarian crisis seriously in Vidarbha and announce special plan to address existing despair," Tiwari said while urging Prime Minister Narendra Modi to relook into agrarian crisis immediately.