Over 7,700 Vidarbha farmers committed suicide in 6 yrs

Nagpur: Even after a slew of measures by the centre and state, suicides by farmers continued unabated in Vidarbha. An RTI reply informed that in last six years over 7,700 of them have ended their lives, primarily on account of mounting debts and continuous crop failure. Of them, nearly 6,000 are from Amravati division, where Yavatmal has gained infamy for suicides. The loan waivers introduced by both UPA and NDA governments also failed to grant any solace to the struggling farmers.
The reply supplied by the divisional commissioner’s office to a series of queries by RTI activist Abhay Kolarkar disclosed that over 4,000 farmers ended their lives in six districts of Nagpur division from 2001. But the government found only 2,045 cases were eligible for compensation while 1,935 cases were rejected on various grounds. Wardha district leads the chart in the division with 1,646 deaths. In last six years, 1,791 farmers ended their lives, of which 1,093 were found eligible while 671 applications for compensation were rejected.

In the same period in Amravati’s five districts, about 5,943 farmers committed suicide of which 3,228 were found eligible and 2,532 applications were rejected, and 182 are pending for enquiry. Yavatmal recorded the highest number of deaths at 1,647 in six years.

Farm activist Vijay Jawandiya blamed the suicides on the flawed policies of NDA government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said though the income in all sectors was rising, those in farming are still struggling to make ends meet. “Even the cost of production is increasing, along with power bills as well as fertilizer and seeds. The cost of hiring labourers for field work has also gone up significantly to Rs200-Rs250 per day. Poor farmers can’t afford to pay them. The cost of living and social obligations is going northwards, making it extremely difficult for them to survive.”

He said the Modi government made tall claims of paying higher minimum support price (MSP), but failed to deliver. “The MSP of tur dal is Rs5,650 but it is being sold at Rs5,000, chana MSP is Rs4,600 but it was sold at Rs3,700. Ultimately, the farmers face the losses. Now, tur is being imported and no duty was imposed. Only in the case of sugar, the government imposed the import duty.”

Agreeing with him, Vasantrao Naik Sheti Swavlamban Mission chairman Kishore Tiwari also blamed the BJP led government in Maharashtra under chief minister Devendra Fadnavis for flawed policies that led to continuing farmers’ suicides. “From NDA-I to UPA-II, Vidarbha hogged the limelight for the suicides. But in Fadnavis government, even Marathwada is included. The successive governments have failed to address the root cause behind large number of suicides, and only indulged in pep talks for all these years,” he said, while warning the NDA government to get ready for the farmers backlash in forthcoming Lok Sabha and assembly polls.