The Prime Minister’s Office has taken note of the suicide of a farmer in Yavatmal district of Maharashtra who wrote the words “Modi Sarkar” and “Karjasathi Atmahatya [Suicide for debt]” on two leaves before ending his life on September 16.
Kishor Tiwari, who heads Maharashtra government’s Farmer’s Mission, said: “The Prime Minister’s Office took note of the suicide of farmer Prakash Mangovkar in Titavi village of Yawatmal and asked the Farmers’ Mission to visit the family and submit a report. Officials of the mission along with all senior district officials visited the family. We spoke to his wife Vidya, daughter Dhanashri and brother Rajnishrao. The government will bear expenses of the education of Mr. Mangovkar’s three children from ‘KG to PG’ [kindergarten to post-graduation]. His wife will be given a government job by the Devendra Fadnavis government.”
Mangovkar’s family members reportedly demanded that the Prime Minister be booked for suicide. However, the Farmers’ Mission has denied that the family made any such claims.
Mr. Tiwari said Mangovkar’s suicide was an example of the misery gripping rural farmers in Vidarbha and a warning sign to the government.
He said, “Politics also played a role in the spread of such talks [booking the PM for suicide]. This man was moving around with a rope for over a week before his suicide and was openly saying that he wanted to kill himself. Where was the administration? There is a Prerana Project under which the distressed farmers have to be identified.”
He added, “I have already demanded that the health officials concerned in the area should be sacked of this negligence. What were they doing when this farmer was moving around with a rope? Why was he not taken to the rehabilitation centre by the authorities concerned ? He was not a poor farmer. He was an educated man and a part-time RTI activist. We have taken his suicide very seriously.”