Sharad Pawar’s Vidarbha Relief is Peanut: Farmers to observe ‘Black Diwali’

Sharad Pawar’s Vidarbha Relief is Peanut: Farmers to observe ‘Black Diwali’

NAGPUR: 25^th  October  2013

Must awaited central Govt. relief announcement of done union Agri. Minister Sharad Pawar of Rs.922 crore has added fuel to the agrarian crisis as this is toll little to compensate the huge losses of crop and properties ,will increase despair and distress as all announcements are turning out to be hoax for example in August Maharashtra Chief Minister announced Rs.2000 crore relief aid but till date nothing has been released more over local administration is shamelessly is Rs.80 to Rs.100 relief cheque  rubbing the salt on the wounds of dying farmers who lost complete crop, home and cattle as there are more than 3 million  flood effected farmers and others hence it is obvious  this aid is peanut hence vidarbha farmers and farmers widows will observe “Black Diwali” to press demands compensation to tune of actual losses ,higher support price for cotton and soybean i.e. @ Rs.6000/ quintal and @5000/quintal,Kishore Tiwari of Vidarbha Janandolan Samiti (VJAS) informed today, urging Indian Govt. provide aid to tackle very pathetic situation as state Govt. failed to give any healing touch to dying farming community which is crying for food, medicine and relief aid” Tiwari said.

Vidarbha where more than million acres of land has been eroded and crop lost amounting more than Rs.20,000 crore but announced relief by centre and state for Vidarbha is merge Rs.2800 crore which is too less to repair damaged  roads and bridges on a large scale and need urgent repairs and will need more money for property damage compensation  hence massive crop damages are likely to ignored  as final assessment report  of state govt. has not been submitted and farmers are crying for help, Tiwari said  

Earlier too when Indian Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh visited vidarbha on 1^{st July 2006} for announcing vidarbha relief package of Rs.3750 and he told the farm widows that his visit to give healing touch to distressed farmers  but  all promises given by him went in vain  and complete relief package followed by farm loan waiver failed to address the farm suicide issue failed miserably and his so called ‘Healing Touch’ has given more pain and despair now Indian Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar has announced relief package after three day “Farm suicide tourism”  in September 2013 with same slogan that his tour is not political one and he is visiting flood hit region to give healing touch to dying farmers but farmers are requesting him not to rub the salt to their wounds by giving to promises and creating rosy picture as it’s trigger more suicide as when PM promise of farm credit ,direct aid and restoration to  sustainable agriculture and livelihood of agrarian community turned to be hoax, Tiwari said. ,

Vidarbha farmer gets Rs.80 for Rs.15,000 loss!-IANS Report

Vidarbha farmer gets Rs.80 for Rs.15,000 loss!

IANS – 15 minutes ago

http://in.finance.yahoo.com/news/vidarbha-farmer-gets-rs-80-084803977.html

Nagpur, Oct 23 (IANS) A farmer Wardha district in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, who suffered losses of around Rs.15,000 during the last monsoon floods, was aghast to receive a compensation amount of Rs.80.

He is not the only one, according to NGO Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS) chief Kishore Tiwari, active among the farming communities in eastern Maharashtra.

"Thousands of cheques bearing compensation amounts like Rs.80, Rs.100, Rs.150 are lying in various tehsildar offices, but the farmers are refusing to collect them," Tiwari said here Wednesday.

The Wardha farmer, Sotba G.Bavne had submitted claims worth around Rs.15,000 for the losses in the floods and spent an additional Rs.95 in various official fees.

"The most shocking part is that some officials came to survey his premises, they had tea and snacks in his home and even took Rs.100 promising to expedite his claims...VJAS demands that these officials be suspended and booked," Tiwari told IANS.

The meagre compensation amounts are being doled out though Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan had announced a total aid package of Rs.2,000 crore for the severely flood-hit regions of eastern Maharashtra during the monsoon fury this year.

Later, union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar made an intensive tour of the region and indicated a massive special central aid, which has not yet been announced, Tiwari added.

"In the meantime, the farmers are being told to collect these cheques with pittance amount. Only for opening a savings bank account to deposit them, they are required to shell out a minimum Rs.500. How can the poor farmer afford?" he said.

Tiwari said the state and central governments must immediately look into this issue before more debt-hit and flood-affected farmers commit suicide. Only in October, over a dozen farmers ended their lives.

Several districts of the Vidarbha region, especially Wardha, Amravati, Yavatmal, were severely affected by deluge during this year's monsoon in July-August.

Farm suicides on rise, toll 671: VJAS-TIMES OF INDIA

Farm suicides on rise, toll 671: Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti

TNN | Oct 22, 2013, 06.10 AM IST

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/Farm-suicides-on-rise-toll-671-Vidarbha-Jan-Andolan-Samiti/articleshow/24509796.cms

NAGPUR: The farm suicides in Vidarbha seem to be again on the rise after some time. With three more deaths in the last 24 hours, the toll for the current year since January has gone up to 671, claimed Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti, a farmers advocacy group tracking the situation for last 15 years. 

Ashok Kharkate, of village Sirasgoan (Dhanyad), and Omdeo Supare, of village Vela, (both in Wardha district) and Kailash Dudhade, of Borgai in Yavatmal, were identified as the latest victims to have ended their lives. Excessive rains and floods, which left land spanning lakhs of hectares waterlogged and unfit for farming, seems to have caused the latest bout of despair among the rain-dependent farmers of the region. The Navratri celebrations were marred in the region due to 13 farm suicides from the cotton, soyabean growing areas of western Vidarbha. 

While there is no mechanism to validate each of these reported suicides, district administrations often record these deaths as accidental or blame it on reasons like alcoholism or family problems. But VJAS president Kishore Tiwari has charged the state and the Centre of apathy and inaction in terms of providing the promised relief measures. 

"Not a paisa of the Rs 2000 crore relief announced by chief minister Prithviraj Chavan has reached the affected farmers and this has exacerbated the crisis," Tiwari pointed out. He has also claimed that the official figures of suicides announced by the government from time to time in Parliament do not differ much from what VJAS has been claiming. "There is an urgent need for Union government to intervene to provide a healing touch to the farming community crying for food, medicine and aid," Tiwari stressed.

Five more vidarbha Aid Starved Farmers Suicides a Day: VJAS urged for urgent relief aid

Five more vidarbha Aid Starved Farmers Suicides a Day: VJAS urged for urgent  relief aid

NAGPUR: 18^th  October  2013

The distress and despair in west vidarbha has claimed five more farmers suicide in last 24 hours taking toll to 608 in year 2013 after heavy rain and flood damaged crop and as per reports they are

1.Mahadeo Mahakulkar of village boregoan  in Yavatmal

2 vishnu mahadeo satputeBaban Kadam of village Amala in wardha

3 rambhau bonde  of village rantapur in Amaravti

4.Mahadeo paikhan of village punwat in yavatmal

5.sampat jinda lore of village wadner  in Amaravati

Earlier this week during Dasara  festival

6sherao jadhav of village kinhi in yavatmal

7.Ashok korade of village dabha in yavatmal

8.bhagwan gatkal of village bhar jahangir in washim

9.kavady aswale of village devurwada in chandrapur

10. sunil tagade  of village antargoan in yavatmal

11.Naryan jakulwar of village rajapeth in yavatmal

12.suresh chincholkar of village kora in wardha

13.laxman kusram of village piprad in Yavatmal

farmers suicides were reported means  every eight hours  one debt trapped aid starved farmer's suicide is being reported but Maharashtra  administration has turned blind eye to these innocent genocide as neither single paisa as relief aid nor the farm credit is being given even after Maharashtra chief minister Prathaviraj chavan has announced the relief package Rs.2000 crore and hostile and corrupt administration is responsible for these farm suicides , Kishore Tiwari of Vidarbha Janandolan Samiti (VJAS) informed today, urging urgent intervention of Indian Govt. to tackle very pathetic situation as state Govt. failed to give any healing touch to dying farming community, crying for food, medicine and relief aid .

Vidarbha farm suicides data

2001: 52

2002: 104

2003: 148

2004: 447

2005: 445

2006: 1,448

2007: 1,246

2008: 1,268

2009: 916

2010: 748

2011: 918

2012 : 916

2013 : (Till 3^rd September —668)

“Most of the  farm suicides are from villages which are flood affected and flood salvaged area and collector yavatmal  district was asked visit families and to report ground truth of distress and despair forcing farmers to kill themselves by Maharashtra chief minister and to  take fresh survey of but administration and babus  have not moved out of A/C cabins and till today has not visited single family where debt trapped and aid starved farmers committed suicide    more over all survey of crop damages are being done on office table resulting  depriving  million families in yavatmal  who are flood affected  from aid who are facing heavy damages to main  crop of cotton, soya, paddy and tur in more than million hector   if apathy of administration is continued ground situation likely fuel more distress and more farm suicides  are feared if immediate central intervention is not reached to dying vidarbha’s flood hit people” Tiwari added.  

The unseen record rain in drought prone vidarbha has been creating havoc and one lac families homeless and massive damage to standing crop in an around a million hector amounting more than Rs.20,000 crore hence Maharashtra Govt. being urged to give relief to 2 crore  rain-flood hit population  of vidrabha  as flood-hit are in urgent need of food, compensation, fresh credit and medical help , Tiwari added.

Vidarbha rain-flood crisis needs integrated relief package that should address compensation crop damages to all farmers as rain is till continued  the flood victims are crying for help and property ,credit restoration and fresh crop loan to vidarbha  farmers ,food security for all effected families under antyodaya, free health services  and 100% reimbursement of  fees for higher professional education is need of the hour, Tiwari  urged Maharashtra CM but local administration ground report is not in line with crisis delaying needy help to distressed people.

India: Suicide Series of cotton farmers-German TV report

India: Suicide Series of cotton farmers

India: Suicide Series of cotton farmers

Gajanand Gattawar was desperate, saw no future. The cotton farmer was in debt - and committed suicide. As an estimated 200 000 small farmers in India over the last decade. The cotton farmers in the so-called suicide belt of India must annually purchase expensive, genetically modified seeds, many heavily into debt. But the returns are not as high as that of the subsidized agro-industry in the U.S. and Europe. The world market prices are not certainly not enough to live on and to reduce debt. An expert examination for the Indian Supreme Court comes to the conclusion that the industry has benefited greatly from transgenic agricultural technology, the vast majority of farmers arrived but had no positive effect.

Jürgen Osterhage, ARD New Delhi

It is not only their grief. There is more. Despair. Sorry. Pure misery "Help me" asks Sasi Kala. Mother of three children. No money. No husband No income. Hardly anything to eat. A few grains of wheat. A little bit of rice. That's all. Her husband Gajanand. Cotton farmer. Suicide. Three weeks ago. Because of insolvency. He did not continue. "How are we going to survive? No one helps me. What about my children? I have nothing. Only debt. "

The abject poverty in central India has a name: suicide belt

Vanjari, a village in central India. A few hundred cotton farmers. Abject poverty. The center of the subcontinent. Here it has a name: suicide belt. Thousands of free death every year. I meet Anil Prasad. TV journalist. He is working on a documentary for the Indian television. Of suicides by farmers. Even the suicide of Sasi Kala `s man he has documented. Suspended from a tree. Next door. In a grove. "The farmers know no way out. Of cotton cultivation is unproductive. Seeds and fertilizers are too expensive. The yield is too low. They deserve nothing more. "

The cotton farmers of Vanjari - as Sasi Kala, who tries to survive alone without a man: Loser of the networked global economy. The Suicides: dramatic result of the unjust distribution of opportunities in global trade. With wooden plows and manual work against giant tractors and irrigation. Not only that, against state agricultural subsidies, as in Europe or in the U.S. and low Weltmarktpreisen.Doch addition. There is no natural cotton more in Vanjari. Only GM - called BT Cotton. Every year the farmers have to buy the expensive seeds. And still expensive fertilizers and pesticides. "We used to have grown natural cotton," says the cotton farmer Raju Ganpat Rao. "We have made a profit. By introducing the gene product BT Cotton cultivation costs have exploded. But not the income. That puts us under enormous pressure. "

Every year the farmers have to buy expensive fertilizers and pesticides

I visit a store. On offer: Almost only gene-seed of the U.S. company Monsanto.Fertilizers and pesticides. Mainly by global companies Bayer and Dupont. "In good times, GM cotton is better than natural", says the shopkeeper Kashi Nath Milmile."But there bad harvests, the farmers themselves have to borrow money. The debt is then always greater. The despair also. "

Ride to the next village. I experience the capricious nature. Monsoon. Heavy rain. Bad for GM seed, the artificial irrigation is preferred. I meet Kishor Tiwari. Activist and lawyer. The only one in the region, who cares about the fate of the rural farmers. He shows me tables. Tells me the drama of the rising suicide numbers. The farmers are forced to grow expensive genetically engineered cotton. There is no alternative. The Indian government wants it that way. Tell me Kishor Tiwari. They collect money for it. Of the multinationals. "The situation is miserable. There is no help from the government. It does nothing. More and more farmers are driven to suicide. "His office keeps statistics. An employee shows books. Three. Written with full name. All farmers. All suicide victims. "Bt cotton brings nothing but debt, which drives people to death. If the breadwinner of a family commits suicide, he ended the lives and the future of his family. This is the tragedy. "

Sasi Kala with a photo of her late husband

Sasi Kala experienced the just. She is one of thousands of widows. The cotton farmers are slaves in their own country. So Kishor Tiwari. They worked around the clock. However, the profit would have multinational corporations. These neo-feudal structures - hand in hand with political power and corruption. A life with no way out.Without hope. Especially for Sasi Kala. A giant mountain of debt has left her husband. No chance of repayment. But worse still: How should it ever survive? How will they feed themselves and their children? You do not know.

Vidarbha Farm widows fightback Agrarian Crisis-Times of India

Vidarbha Farm widows fightback Agrarian Crisis-Times of India 

Nagpur-29th April 2013 

Though the lives of most widows of farmers who had committed suicide isn't better than when their husbands were alive, many of them seem to be giving life a tougher fight than their husbands did. They admit women are stronger than men and also they could not shun the responsibility of their children and family. The despair is not gone completely but they are learning to swim even with tide against them.

Three such women who spoke at an open session at a two-day national seminar organized by Tirpude College of Social Work spoke to TOI. Bharti Pawar, apparently the strongest of the three, had never even stepped out of her house until her husband killed himself in 2008. She now runs a flour mill, stitches clothes, and is educating her children. "I belong to an educated Thakur family in which women were prohibited to get out of the house. When my husband died, I told my in-laws that either they give me money for mine and my children's expenses or they let me step out and work. They had no option but to allow me to work. My son is in Std VIII and daughter in Std VI. I also cultivate my share of two acre land," she said.

Rekha Gurnule, who lost her husband in 2006, is now an anaganwadi worker. She has leased her three-acre land and gets just Rs 10,000 annually from it. She is managing her family with her Rs 4000 monthly salary. "My husband had been giving me hints about suicide and I had always promised to stand by him and not give up. Now I realize that agriculture can never be means for survival. So I have decided to educate my children and go for other occupations. Come what may, I will not give up," she said. Both Gurnule and Pawar are from village Sai Kheda in Yavatmal district.

Nanda Bhandare from Bhadumri village, also in Yavatmal district, is extremely optimistic and strong too. She is cultivating the family land herself. "My husband was being harassed by bank officials for a fortnight when he committed suicide. I had never imagined that he will take his life. I am more optimistic. However, I will have to stop education of my daughter who has passed Std XII as my financial condition is not good enough," she said.

The three women can definitely be inspiration to thousands of others. Rekha could have gone to her parents' family who are better off but she decided to fight it out by herself. They all could have remarried as they were widowed when they were not even in their 30s. But like any other mother, all of them preferred to bring up their children than think of their own future. They did face a lot of humiliation in family, in village and in society in general but they didn't give up. "Women are always stronger than men and all of us have proved this. There are ups and downs in life and we still have a long way to go but we will not kill ourselves," reiterated the three together.

Earlier, the UGC sponsored seminar was inaugurated by the BJP state president Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday. He said various steps by central and state governments to curb the problem failed due to lack of political will and commitment but blamed the crisis primarily on lack of institutional credit policy.

Kishor Tiwari, president of Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti, Keshav Patil, principal of Tirpude College, T V Gedam and W T Kombade, Yuagantar Education Society vice-president and secretary respectively, M S Gautam and Swati Dharmadhikari also addressed the gathering.  

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3 days after Sharad Pawar found nothing 'terrible' in Vidarbha village, a farmer ends life-DNA Special

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

dna special: 3 days after Sharad Pawar found nothing 'terrible' in Vidarbha village, a farmer ends life

Monday, Sep 23, 2013, 7:22 IST | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA

Yogesh Pawar  

  

Sharad Pawar

Two more farmers suicides in Yavatmal district, with one from the same village that Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar visited, less than a week after his three day Vidarbha visit “to assess the damage on the ground due to excessive rainfall and subsequent floods” may come as a major source of embarrassment for both Pawar and his party, the NCP.

While Thavru Rathod of Kinhala village (which Pawar visited on September 18th) committed suicide late on Saturday, Shriram Talmale of Salod village ended his life early on Sunday. The toll this year has risen to 635.

Kinhala sarpanch Sudam Pawar who was waiting to collect the body after the post-mortem told dna, “Thavru was landless and leased the plot of land which he was farming. He lost his crops twice to flooding caused by excessive rains and was worried about repaying the debt stacked up,” and added, “Pawarsaheb’s people said that they will help farmers like him but he realised nothing concrete was coming and took the drastic step.”

On Sunday, when four farmers from Vidarbha committed suicide,Pawar had said: “I don’t see problems in this region being as terrible as [they are] made out to be,” while speaking at Pandharkawda in Yavatmal district, the epicentre of the farmer suicide issue.

The hackles that his “insensitive” statement raised has quickly turned to anger in the region which was seething over his refusal to meet the widows who had waited hours outside the guest house to meet him. Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti’s Kishore Tiwari has already said, “Sharad Pawar’s behaviour is in keeping with the feudal insensitivity that politicians from Western Maharashtra, who have ruled the state, keep subjecting Vidarbha to.”

The farm suicides which first made headlines in 2005 after GM cotton was introduced, spiralled further after the drought followed by incessant heavy rains this year. The continuing rains have eroded more than million acres of land leaving it unfit for agriculture.

While the divisional commissionerate has estimated the losses inexcess of Rs20,000 crore, Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan has submitted a proposal seeking Rs1,180 crore for Vidarbha from the centre.