Nashik: Another farmer has committed suicide in Nashik.
The 45-year-old grape farmer had a loan of over Rs 1 lakh to his name. He is survived by a family of six.
Ironically, the Prime Minister is on a two day tour of the Vidharba region to get a first hand look at the problems of farmers in the belt.
Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar is travelling with him.
The Prime Minister reached Dhamangaon in the Amravati district of Maharashtra a short while ago and met family members of farmers who have committed suicide.
Talking to farmers in Dhamangaon, the Prime Minister stressed on the fact that farmers must have an alternative source of livelihood.
"Sole dependance on farming is dangerous. Farmers should have alternative sources of income. The committee will look into alternatives such as poultry farming and gardening as occupations that can generate income for farmers," he said.
The PM was expected to make some big ticket annoucements toward relief for the farmers including the waiver of loans, but he failed to mention anything of the sort. Instead he said that the farmers should try and diversify into starting poultries and dairies so as to generate alternate sources of income.
The PM's Press Secretary Sanjay Baru is likely to speak to the media on Friday evening and there may be a debt relief announcement then or the PM himself may announce the package by Saturday afternoon.
The PM has committed that the Government will do something to start irrigation schemes in Vidarbha, which are lacking so far.
Sharad Pawar did not speak in the meeting at all. Only the PM and the state Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh interacted with the farmers.
Pawar is seen as representing the interests of Western Maharashtra at Vidarbha.
He is known to be very close to the sugarcane growers' lobby and there are allegations that he diverts fund of the Agriculture Ministry only to the Western Maharashtra region and farmers are not in a mood to go out of their way and communicate with him.
There is also a lot of skepticism surrounding the PM's tour because this is not the first time that the Government has announced a relief package for the farmers.
The state government too had announced a relief package but that did not make any difference to the plight of the farmers.
The people here are asking for the PM to increase the support price for their agricultural produce.
Farmers say that the package will be a short-time relief, but if the support price will increase then it will be long-term relief for them.
The PM has moved to Wardha to the Gandhi Ashram and is expected to be there till the evening after which he will move to Raj Bhawan in Nagpur.
There have been at least 50 suicides in the belt in the last one month and over 8,900 suicides have been recorded in the four states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Kerala between 2001 and 2006
The PM will visit villages in Nagpur, Amravati, Wardha and Yavatmal, during his two-day tour to Vidarbha - where more than 600 farmers have committed suicide in the last one year.
(With inputs from Rohit Chandavarkar)
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