5000 farm suicides in vidarbha-hindu reports

Date:06/07/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/07/06/stories/2007070656301400.htm National Six more farmers commit suicide Special Correspondent MUMBAI: Six more farmers have committed suicide in the cotton belt of Vidarbha in the past two days raising the total number of farmer suicides, due to debts, to 1,132 in the last one year. Kishore Tiwari of the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti has urged the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh to review the relief package of Rs. 3,750 crore for 30 lakh farmers of the region. The package, according to him, has failed on all fronts due to complete apathy of the administration, poor implementation of schemes under the package, corruption and political interference. Mr. Tiwari wanted the Prime Minister to investigate the failure of the package in resolving the agrarian crisis. He said that measures aimed at raising the farmers’ income that would provide relief in loan repayments were not sufficient. He urged for free health care and education for the farming community besides total waiver of debts. More than 5,000 farmers had committed suicides since 2002. © Copyright 2000 - 2006 The Hindu