10 more farmers commit suicide in Vidarbha

Last Updated: Wednesday, March 10, 2010, 23:19

Tags: Vidarbha, Suicide, Farmer

Nagpur/Yavatmal: Ten more debt-ridden farmers have allegedly committed suicide in Vidarbha over the last three days, an NGO active in the region and government officials said today.

Six of them, including a woman, belong to Yavatmal district, Kishore Tiwari, President of Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS), said in a statement.

The NGO said all the ten farmers were under heavy debt. Other suicides were reported from Nagpur, Akola and Washim districts.

Confirming the farmer suicides in Yavatmal, District Collector Sanjay Deshmukh said he was gathering more information from the officials concerned. "We shall pay ex-gratia to the next of kin of the deceased as per the established norms after getting reports," he added.

Tiwari said more than 40,000 farmers have killed themselves in Maharashtra since 1998 due to reasons like crop failure and financial burden. Majority of them were from dry land regions of Vidarbha and Marathawada.

This year more then 20,000 villages have been declared drought-hit by the State Government.

Despair and apathy of the administration are leading to suicide by farmers, Tiwari alleged. The drought-hit villages are facing severe shortage of water, food, fodder and employment but the administration has not started any relief work, resulting in migration of thousands farmers.

-PTI

First Published: Wednesday, March 10, 2010, 23:19

Comments

Vikki - Mumbai
What else to expect from Maharashtra government, who has been busy 24 hours a day 12 months a year in, working only for Mumbai builders industrialists of mumbai/thane/pune and farmers of western Maharashtra. This happens to be 50 th year of Maharashtra state which is now busy in planning grand celebrations. Again because of this celebration priority poor Farmers` deaths will go to background.

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Bharat - Bharat
40000 farmers commited suicide in Maharashtra alone since 1998? That number far surpasses any terrorism attack in the last 10-15 years. We must remember that these farmers are the ones who provide us with food to eat. They are NOT greedy capitalist pigs who just want to earn money at any cost. The farmers are the ones that make all the efforts in producing food. They hardly profit from it. The bulk of the profit goes to the distributors and wholesalers. Supporting the farmers should be a national priority. This is so saddening. Where are this government`s priorities? Will BPO / Software feed the Billion plus population of the country? Or will we resort to the GM Bt Brinjal and render everyone ill? I pray to god that these politicians get some sadbuddhi and focus on the right priorities.

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ritesh - hyderabad
How many times we read the news of suicide of debt ridden farmers from different states. Maratwada, andhra pradesh, karnataka, bihar, westbengal and orissa and others are not untouched
I dont know what is there in the minds of the agricultural minitry and policy makers. One has to come up with some solution to put an end to this. Mr Sharad Pawar who hails from the Maharastra should take the responsibility and act swiftly to prevent any future suicides.
our nation depends a lot on agriculture and it is high time that the industry gets proper attention from the grass root level.