Web India: Nagpur: Wednesday, July 26, 2017.
More than
3,600 farmers have allegedly committed suicides in Eastern Vidarbha which falls
under Nagpur Division, as per the reply to an RTI query.
These
suicides occurred during a period of past 17 years.
Since January
this year, 126 farmers from western Vidarbha have ended their lives, 32 deaths
in March and 17 last month.
The spate of
suicides continued unabated in eastern part as well even after the massive loan
waiver announced by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. The government awarded Rs
1 lakh compensation to family of every deceased farmer.
The reply
submitted by Divisional Commissioner Office in Nagpur to a query by an RTI
activist disclosed that Wardha district with nearly 1,500 suicides leads the
chart among six districts in the division.
On the other
hand, backward and Naxalite-hit district like Gadchiroli witnessed least number
of suicides at 74 in 17 years.
In Nagpur
district, the hometown of Chief Minister, about 680 suicides were reported, 23
deaths took place in last six months. Only 254 families received compensation
while claims of 413 were rejected.
The reply
further revealed that hardly half of the families of 3,604 farmers who
committed suicides were found eligible for receiving compensation while 1,740
were declared ineligible and 57 cases are still pending.
Collectively,
the state government offered a compensation of Rs 17.80 crore, while claims of
many of them were rejected for varied reasons.
Sources
squarely blamed the government for its wrong policies that led to unabated
suicides in Vidarbha. Erratic rainfall and crops failure over the years compounded
the woes of farmers.
"The
downtrend started in 2006 when BT Cotton was introduced. It was used
extensively by farmers from Wardha, Bhandara, Gondia and Chandrapur. It led to
massive economic losses, from which they never came up. Subsequently, mounting
debts and distress took their toll," sources informed UNI.
The sources
said that the farmers used to cultivate paddy as a minor crop and cotton as
major crop. Moreover, they worked in farms in spare time.
"Multinational
companies showed them big dream about crops like BT cotton and ruined their
lives completely. The entire cotton-rich belt failed to get good yield due to
usage of such seeds provided by the MNCs. Other factors like rising inflation,
school fees and healthcare charges also added to their woes,"sources
added.UNI PK SS SB 2344
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