FIFTY VIDARBHA FARMERS SUICIDE IN JANUARY-2007

FIFTY VIDARBHA FARMERS SUICIDE IN JANUARY-2007 TOO-MORE DISTRESS REPORTED IN FARMING COMMUNITY

From-Kishor Tiwari
Vidarbha Jan andolan Samiti
11,Trisharan nagar ,Khamala,Nagpur
vidarbha@gmail.com
contact-094221 08846

SUB- Vidarbha Agrarian Crisis - fifty more farm suicides in vidarbha(india) in Jan.2007.

six more farmers suicides reported in last 48 hours in different part of vidarbha ,cotton growing belt of Maharashtra in India due to extreme distress and economic crisis prevailing in rural part of vidarbha taking toll to fifty in this month of January 2007,farmer who committed suicides are two each from yavatmal and washim distt and one each from akola and wardha distt.,they are -
1.bhaurao pandurang khandare ,ekonba(washim)
2.pradip himat dhote ,murtizaput(akola)
3.udhao rajaram aru,shelu-khurd ,( washim)
4.ramdas mukunda meshram ,khairgaon -kasar (yavatmal)'
5.bhallabai shyamraoraut,shegoan-kund(wardha)
6.mahadev sakharam dudhkolhle,sindhi(yavatmal)

according to govt. of Maharashtra official report more than 1400 farmers in six suicide prone distt. committed suicides and govt. has rejected more than 75% cases for compensation claiming to be suicide due to non-agrarian causes but official survey of govt. officials shows that more than 1.2 million farmers out of 1.7 million farmers are under distress and 4.34 lacs cotton farmers are under extreme distress.
agrarian crisis started in this region when Indian govt. WTO terms and started open import of American cotton at rate of almost 50% cultivation cost of vidarbha farmer which has beeen almost double when b.t. cotton seeds were granted permission in june-2005.
Cotton farmers are demanding complete ban on imported cotton ,cotton seed and costly pesticides as imported cotton is cheaply available due to heavy subsidies given by the American other developed countries.
vjas leader kishor tiwari has urged inter national community to stop these mass suicides of the farmers as these are are mass genocide of innocent victims of wrong policies of free trade which has been proven to be most unfair and unjust for third world countries like india.
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regards,
kishor tiwari
vidarbha jan andolan samiti
contact-09422108846