Unmoved by Govt. toll Announcement 12 Distressed Vidarbha Farmers killed themselves in frist week of Legislative Budget Session

Unmoved by Govt. toll Announcement 12 Distressed Vidarbha Farmers  killed themselves in frist week of Legislative Budget Session

Dated-15 march 2015

The recent announcement of Maharashtra Govt. that they are waiving off farm debt of around 2.5 lacs distressed debt trapped farmers and making Maharashtra drought free in year 2019 has not impressed the agrarian crisis ridden vidarbha farmers as 12 more farmers suicides reported in last five days  out of which five from the fra suicide epicenter distrcit Yavatmal and two from buldhana and one each from akola,amaravati,wardha ,bhandara and chandrapur taking toll to 136 in frist 45 days of year 2015   ,The Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti’s (VJAS) president Kishore Tiwari said in a statement today demanding a waiver of institutional crop loans accompanied by provision of health and food forthcoming state budget, which is to be presented next week .

The recent 12 distressed vidarbha farmers are identified as from yavatmal district 1.sunil dusrvanshi of village krishnnapur.2.bhonu meshram of dadapur village   3.  Himmat Umate of  borisingh village 4.Amar pawar of tarnoli 5.prashant ingole of village mukundpur ,6.buldhana distrcit farm victims  are dhyaneshwar kangade of village dhunabkhed and 7.gajanan ambhore of village murti 8. Murlidhar hatwar of village mangli in bhandara 9.dayaran ghate of village paras in akola 10.ramesh bhilkar of village murdgoan in wardha 11.nilesh shewatkar of village chandikapur in amaravati  and 12.mitiram bobade of village lakhamapur in chandrapur as per recent reports ,Tiwari added.

“The speech of Maharashtra Governor in Assembly giving road-map the new Govt. has been saleint on main causes of farmers  suicides which are huge debt and poor unfair market prices of main cash cotton and soyabean  and Coupled with old and new debts, the successive crop failures and family responsibilities, many farmers have committed suicide. In the budget, we are hoping the government will put forth some concrete proposals to benefit the farmers,” Tiwari said.

 “Finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar should consider extending benefits of the Antyodaya food subsidy and employment guarantee schemes, which can help the distressed farmers in the state,” VJAS president Kishore Tiwari said in a statement.

This year, around nine million farmers have suffered following spells of drought, unseasonal rains and hailstorms and other problems, which resulted in massive crop failure.

The hopes from the state budget are especially high since the farmers were disappointed after finding no announcement for the farm sector in the Union Budget presented last week, he observed.

This year, the Maharashtra government has acknowledged that of the 39,453 villages in the state, a whopping 24,810 are drought hit, adding to the farmers’ woes, the activist added.

Recent door to door survey done by administration in January  2015 of around  2 million Vidarbha farmers of six district Amravati division  where more than 11,000 thousands cotton farmers committed suicide  in last 15 years mostly having dry-land and drought prone  climatic conditions .Survey has reveled shocking fact that  13 lacs 60,000 thousands farmers are in found in distress out of which around 4 lacs 50,000 are found in deep distress and any small shock can trigger these  farmers  to opt extremity ,Tiwari added.

 The administration warned the Govt in the survey report these 4.5 lacs farm families who are classified as in acute distress type A are prone to suicide if causes of distress and despair are not addressed ,the major reasons of distress is mounting debt as survey revealed that around 93 % farmers are in debt and issues of heavy losses due to crop failure and low market price of cotton ,critical health, daughter’s  marriage, educational expenses and unemployment,Tiwari added.