New Delhi: The sufferings continue for cotton farmers in Maharashtra.
Three more farmers commit suicide from three different districts in Maharashtra.
Two debt-ridden farmers and daughter of another farmer have committed suicide in Akola, Amravati and Buldana districts in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, said police.
The incidents came a day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced a special package of Rs 3,750 crore to bail out debt-ridden farmers of Vidarbha region.
Kishore, a 22-year old farmer from Umra village in Akot taluka of Akola district, committed suicide by jumping before a running train on Purna-Khandwa section.
His father has been a bed-ridden paralytic patient for the past six years, family sources said adding that failure of crops for the past two years and over burdening of loans forced him to end his life.
In a separate incident, Shrikant Rangrao Kalbande (23), a farmer of Nimbhora Lahe village near Badnera in Amravati district, has committed suicide by consuming poison in his own field, police added.
The village is famous for its orange crops, however, the orange crops were damaged due to lack of water for the past few years, which forced Kalbande to take the extreme step, family sources said adding that he has a handicapped brother, besides aged parents.
In the third incident, Rakhi, the eldest daughter of farmer Shivruora Shelgenwar of Shelgaon Deshmukh village in Mehkar taluka of bordering Buldana district has ended her life by jumping into a well after her father stopped her brother's education to arrange funds for her marriage, police said.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was scheduled to visit these debt-ridden farmers of Amaravati, but it was cancelled at the last moment.
A group of farmers from Kolejhari village have now gone on a hunger strike protesting the cancelled PM's visit.
Over the last five years, crop losses and debt burdens have forced more than sixteen hundred farmers in Vidarbha to commit suicide.
( With agency inputs)
Comments
0 comment