Four more farmers end life in Vidarbha region-TIMES OF INDIA
NAGPUR: Reports collated by farm activist Kishore Tiwari of Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti claimed that four more farmers had committed suicide in last two days in the region. While there was no independent official conformation of these case, Tiwari said that there was a jump in agrarian distress as relief measures by the government were found to be too little and very late.
Tiwari has claimed that with these four new deaths, the toll in the current year has gone up to 202 in the drought-affected Vidarbha (108) and Marathwada (94) regions. In 2014, over 1,800 farmers had committed suicide due to mounting problems of crop losses and unpaid debts.
The four latest victims were identified as Gajanan Khandare of Khillari in Amravati, Laxman Divare of Hivlani in Yavatmal, Shankar Shende of Torgoan in Chandrapur and Bhika Kawale of Kesapur in Buldhana. “The delay in distribution of relief aid and complete government apathy are the reasons behind the farmers taking the extreme step,” said Tiwari
The state government had already declared 23,811 of the state’s 39,453 villages as drought-affected for severe damage to the kharif crops. Yet, the Centre had not come to the rescue despite demand for urgent relief package by the state, said Tiwari. After recent concern expressed on the situation by the Supreme Court, the National Human Rights Commission on Monday took suo motu cognizance of newspaper reports that the state government had denied compensation to the families of over 2,700 farmers who had committed suicide since 2011 because of agricultural distress, said Tiwari.
