Five more vidarbha farmers’ suicides at time of 1st may Maharashtra Day Celebration

VIDARBHA JAN ANDOLAN SAMITI
REGD. OFFICE: 11, TRISARAN SOCIETY, KHAMALA, NAGPUR - 440 025.
PH. 2282447/457 MOBILE-9422108846. vidarbha@gmail.com
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REF: - FARMER'S SUICIDES VERY-URGENT-PRESS NOTE DATED-2nd MAY,2007

Five more vidarbha farmers’ suicides at time of 1st may Maharashtra Day Celebration: Hundred of Cotton Farmers observed Betrayal Day-Demands bonus to cotton and fresh Bank Credit to debt trapped farmers. (Pl See Attached photo)


Nagpur-2nd MAY 2007


(vjas leader kishor tiwari address cotton farmers rally inpandharkawada on 1sty may-2007)

Five more cotton farmers committed suicide in vidarbha on 1st may when Maharashtra Govt. was celebrating its formation day,
they are
1.RAMBHAU SAKHARAM KHATE OF YAVALI IN YAVATMAL
2.VASUDEORAO MAHADEV POTRAJWAR OF SHRIRAMPUR IN YAVATMAL
3.SUNIL MAHADEV BHAGAT HUSANAPUR IN WARDHA
4.PRADIP RAMCHANDRA MASKE IN RENUKAPUR IN WARDHA
5.GAJANAN MAHSAJI SHINDE OF AALLYA IN BULDHANA

These are cotton growers who are debt trap committed suicides due to deep distress.
Hundreds of cotton growers of yavatmal region observed may day as betrayal day and arranged dharana before office of the s.d.o. kelapur .farmers belonging to all parties participated in this protest. later in the evening to submitted their chapter of demands which include release of advance bonus rs.400 per quintal as part relief ,fresh credit to every cotton growers as due to crop failure they are not able to repay the pending crop loan and money leaders are exploiting the pathetic condition of farmers asking them to purchase high cost boll gardII bt.cotton forcibly ,informed kishor tiwari of vidabha jan andolan samiti.

In year till April 2007 record 350 vidarbha farmers suicides reported (JAN-70, FEB-88, MARCH -97 APRIL 95) that has exposed local administration that package implementation has dropped down the farm suicides in vidarbha by 50% as farm suicide figure of this year since Jan to April is all most double and farm suicides in vidarbha are daily increasing but administration is using official media to mislead the world that vidarbha farm suicides are on decline as maharashtra govt. on it's own website
http://www.vnss-mission.gov.in/docs/suicide.pdf
has put the information that exposes this claims as wrong one as vidarbha farm suicides in last three year are on record high and vidarbha Jan andolan samiti has given the reference of their own web site official data, which is like this


The cotton growing area of west vidarbha under agrarian crisis has recorded 350 farm suicides in first four months of 2007 but there is no drop down in sowing of highly failure bt. Cotton in this region as it is reported locally that this year area covered under bt. Cotton sowing is likely double that from 8 lacs hector to 16 lacs hector as all seed traders cum money lenders are giving bt. Cotton seeds on credit to these debt trap farmers after as more than 95% cotton farmers failed to repay crop loan this year due poor cotton crop and drop down in market rate of cotton. banker are not giving fresh loan to defaulter cotton farmers where as Monsanto is giving huge credit and lucrative schemes to seed traders and they are in turn forcing innocent cotton farmers to purchase these failure bt. Cotton seed. local administration has reported this fact to Indian Govt. but everybody is turning blind eye as American genetically modified seed giant Monsanto has protection from US President Bush where as in India agriculture minister of India sharad pawar is patron of this company in India ,infomed by vidarbha jan andolan samiti in press note released today india. VJAS has been demanding complete ban on bt. Cotton in west vidarbha as now it’s official that bt. Cotton has been failed in rain fed area and in all most all 95% area is rain fed and farmers has to depend upon monsoon which is not regular and small and marginal farmers are suffering from massive economic losses due to frequent failure of bt. cotton and majority of 2500 cotton farmers suicides reported since June 2005 are small and marginal farmers who opted bt. Cotton seed in rain fed area, kishor tiwari vjas added.
Total failure rural health care, employment and social cum civil administration are the main reasons of farmer's suicides in west vidarbha and dr.sudhir goyal himself has asked Indian govt. that low cost sustainable farming is only solution of stop these suicides. Ban on Bt. Cotton and chemical farming is need of hour and cotton farmers should cultivate there than cotton should the programme of the state the official further demands. Restoration secondary systems like rural employment, health is also needed to stop these on going suicides but nobody is acting in this direction more over misleading press releases are adding fuel to extremely critical situation in vidarbha ,kishor tiwari in formed


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Please arrange to release this press note
Yours faithfully


Kishor Tiwari
President
Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti
vidarbha@gmail.com
Contact-09422108846;