Debt-ridden farmers in suicide-prone Vidarbha, Maharashtra, are peeved at the Maharashtra government’s plan to start counselling programmes, beginning with the ten worst-hit districts. A farmers’ watchdog, Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS) has rebuked the state’s public health minister, Deepak Sawant, as being insensitive to the farmer’s suffering and said the...

A record 1,306 farmers committed suicide in Maharashtra during the one-year period of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in office - between May 20, 2014, to May 25, 2015, a farmers' watchdog body said here on Monday. This figure is around 40 percent higher than the same period between May 2013-May...