RAMU BHAGWAT-TNN-

Nagpur: Santosh Vithal Dhote of Panchagawan village in Yavatmal district who killed himself on Tuesday was 852nd victim since June last year of the suicide spree sweeping Vidarbha region`s cotton belt. Around the same time he took the ultimate step to end his miserable life, Maharashtra governor S M Krishna was holding a high-level meeting in far-away Mumbai to review implementation of farmers` relief packages.

Reports reaching from various districts said eight more farmers had committed suicide in the last three days taking the toll to 244 since July 1, when prime minister Manmohan Singh announced a special relief package, according to Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti, a pressure group that is maintaining a suicides register. `` Farmers are committing suicide at an alarming rate because relief is not reaching them,`` said Samiti president Kishore Tiwari.


``Glaring differences in perception of how the farm crisis is viewed in official quarters have once again come to the fore,`` said Tiwari talking to TNN on Thursday. At the meeting with planning commission members and senior state officer dealing with the situation, the governor said the plight of Vidarbha farmers was a matter of grave national concern. The Prime Minister himself during his Vidarbha visit has said the crisis was a spin-off of growing rural distress and farmers indebtedness. He even referred to the crisis while addressing the nation from ramparts of the Red Fort on August 15.

``But starkly in contrast, Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh as well as his senior cabinet colleagues seem to have a different view,`` remarked Tiwari. In his recent visit here the CM had said : ``it is difficult to say that farmers were dying because of indebtedness alone. There are several causes, including social evils like drinking, family discords, illness that could be driving them to take a drastic measure like suicide.``



State revenue minister Narayan Rane echoed the same view here on Tuesday . While experts including father of green revolution M S Swaminathan, who is also chairman of National Commission of Farmers, have recommended higher procurement price for cotton, the state is totally opposed to it. ``The year we paid the highest price (of around Rs 2300 per quintal), farmers suicide were at a new high,`` Deshmukh as well as Rane have pointed out. But on Tuesday, the governor endorsed the need to have a price stabilisation insulate the farmer assuggested by Swaminathan. This year again the price has been fixed at Rs 1960 but activists like Tiwari say it should be hiked to Rs 2500 and only that could bring direct relief to farmers and stop the spate of suicides.
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News Update Service Thursday, September 7, 2006 : 1150 Hrs

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/002200609070310.htm
National
One farmer committing suicide every five hours: Samiti

Nagpur, Sept 7. (PTI): As many as 72 farmers have committed suicide in the last 15 days in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, which means one farmer is commiting suicide every five hours, Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS), an NGO working for the cause of farmers, claimed on Wednesday.

Samiti, has said in a release on Wednesday that 828 farmers had committed suicide between June 1, 2005 and September 5, 2006.

The special package announced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his visit to the region on June 30 and July 1, has yet to provide the much-needed relief to farmers, they claimed.

Samiti would launch an agitation from September 15 to press for the release of a new crop loan and implementation of various schemes meant for farmers in affected district, Samiti release added.

http://au.news.yahoo.com//060904/19/10efe.html

Monday September 4, 05:39 PM

Indian farmer suicide rate soars

MUMBAI (AFP) - Farmer suicides in India's main cotton belt have reached their highest ever level with 216 dead since premier Manmohan Singh announced a major relief effort in July, community leaders said.

The monthly death toll hit more than 100 for the first time in August and suicides are continuing at three a day among farmers hit hard by rising debt and falling cotton prices.

Tallies compiled by activists show 767 farmers killed themselves in the last 12 months in the Vidarbha region in western Maharashtra state, with many setting themselves alight or drinking pesticide.

Activists say only a few hundred farmers have been helped by Singh's 37.5-billion rupee (835 million dollar) relief package announced after a two-day visit to Vidarbha.

"High optimism was created but the package has not worked and it's had an effect on farmers' suicides by adding to their distress," said Kishor Tiwari, of the Vidarbha People's Protest Forum.

Indian government officials said earlier this year more than 8,900 farmers had killed themselves in four Indian states since 2001, a figure dismissed as too low by activists.

Last month, the government said 43 million of India's near 89 million farmer households were in debt.

The opening up of the Indian economy to low-price foreign cotton and excess global supply has hit farmers who lack education and opportunities to retrain, said activists. Costs are 50 percent higher than the market value of their crops, said Tiwari.

As part of the package, Singh announced the waiver of farmer interest payments to state-owned banks but private moneylending with rates of annual interest of up to 120 percent are rampant.

Agriculture provides a livelihood for around 60 percent of the country's 1.1 billion population and accounts for a quarter of India's GDP.

Families have been devastated across the state

More than 200 farmers have committed suicide in India's Maharashtra state since Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited in July, campaigners say.

August alone saw 110 despairing famers in India's cotton belt take their lives - the highest monthly figure since the debt crisis began nine years ago.

Activists put the rising deaths down to official apathy and farmers' despair.

Mr Singh announced a relief package worth $815m. But many farmers say help has yet to reach them.

The state's cotton-growing region of Vidarbha is home to 3.2 million farmers, more than 90% of whom are heavily in debt.

They owe money to government banks as well as to local money lenders.

Mr Tiwari says the government has not done much

On average, one Vidarbha farmer commits suicide every eight hours.

As part of the package, the prime minister announced the waiver of interest payment on loans to banks, but most farmers have taken substantial loans at very high interest rates from private moneylenders too.

Kishor Tiwari, who has been fighting for the farmers' rights for several years, says despair and hopelessness, borne out of official apathy, is the main reason for the increase in suicide cases.

He says the Indian government needs to take emergency measures to tackle the problem which is acquiring epidemic proportions.

The suicides have left thousands of widows in the region, many of them between the ages of 19 and 25 with two to three children.

The state government says it is aware of the problem and admits its failure to check the farmer suicides.

The local administration has now introduced the farmers to yoga and meditation, run by the Art of Living Foundation, in an attempt to check suicides.

Officials hope this will help the farmers think more positively. Activists say they are sceptical of the move, but will support it.

The authorities have already tried spiritual chanting sessions but these failed to stem the suicides.

Indian farmer suicides "touch record" Sun Sep 3, 2006 6:05 AM BST By Krittivas Mukherjee MUMBAI (Reuters) - More than 100 cotton growers killed themselves in India's richest state in August, marking the highest monthly number of suicides in five years by farmers whose mounting crop loans drive them to death, activists said. The spate of suicides in the western state of Maharashtra took the toll to more than 900 this year and the wave has not abated despite highly publicised efforts by New Delhi to ease the financial burdens. Debt-ridden farmers have been killing themselves in alarming numbers in four Indian states and government statistics have recorded about 3,600 suicides in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala in the last five years. Maharashtra has been severely hit this year as farmers have failed to procure loans for seed and fertilisers, and those who borrowed money to sow cotton saw their crop destroyed by heavy rains in the past month. Activists say the "accumulated distress" of Maharashtra's farmers is now at its worst. Vidarbha Jana Andolan Samiti, a farmers' pressure group, said it had counted 110 deaths in August, making it the highest figure since 2001. Most of India's farming community is poverty-stricken and many farmers borrow -- often amounts that would only buy a few drinks in an upmarket London or New York pub -- from the village moneylender at rates as high as 10 percent a month. India's economic reforms launched in the early 1990s have added to the farmers' woes, with duties that protected them from subsidised European and American cotton being phased out, experts say. Their debts soar when crops fail due to poor rains or prices tumble. Agriculture supports 600 million of India's 1.1 billion people, but contributes only a fifth of gross domestic product and accounts for only 12 percent of bank credit. FAILED PACKAGE? Maharashtra officials said they did not have a monthly breakdown of farmer suicides but a government Web site said 754 had killed themselves between January and August 15 this year. But farmers' groups said they did not believe the government numbers. They say overall suicide rates in the four states were at least five times more than the 3,600 recorded by authorities. "The government suppresses facts for obvious reasons, but we have names of each and every farmer who committed suicide," Samiti head Kishor Tiwari told Reuters. The crisis in Maharashtra prompted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to visit the affected region in July. He announced over $400 million in one-time grants, interest waivers and debt restructuring besides a one-year moratorium on loan repayments for farmers at the end of the tour. But activists said the package was yet to make an impact. "In fact, the rate of suicide has gone up by 50 percent after the prime minister announced his package," Joshi told Reuters. "There is no effort to get to the root of the problem. Whatever steps are announced never percolate to the grassroots," said activist Tiwari. Reacting to reports of a spike in farmer suicides, Prime Minister Singh last week said it would take 2-3 months for his economic package to show results. Singh's Congress swept to power in 2004 largely riding the support of the rural poor, unhappy at missing out on the benefits of India's booming economy, one of the world's fastest growing.

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VIDARBHA JAN ANDOLAN SAMITI

REGD. OFFICE: 11, TRISARAN SOCIETY, KHAMLA, NAGPUR - 440 025.
PH. 2282447/457 MOBILE-9422108846.

===============================================================
REF: - FARMERS SUICIDES PRESS-NOTE DATED- 2^ND SEPTEMBER, 2006

VIDARBHA FARMERS SUICIDE SPREE TILL CONTINUE-TOLL TOUCHES 815 MARK : FED UP WITH LONG WAIT FUND FROM CENTRE ,LOCAL ADMINISTRATION PUT “ART OF LIVING” SPIRITUAL CLASSES TO SLOW DOWN SUICIDES-VJAS TO SUPPORT “ART OF LIVING” EFFORTS.

NAGPUR-2^ND SEPTEMBER -2006,

HAVING FAILED TO GET ANY FUND FOR RELIEF WORK FROM MOST PUBLISHED RS.3750 CRORE PRIME MINISTER PACKAGE TO SIX SUICIDE PORN DISTRICT OF WEST VIDARBHA ,LOCAL ADMINISTRATION HAS NOW PUT SPIRITUAL ORGANIZATION “ART OF LIVING” IN TO OPERATION TO REMOVE PREVAILING DISTRESS IN THE FARMERS RESULTING MORE THAN 200 SUICIDES OF VIDARBHA.

“WHAT IS WRONG IS THESE EFFORTS, INFACT SLOWING DOWN SUICIDES IN VIDARBHA AGRARIAN CRISIS IS NEED OF THE HOUR” KISHOR TIWARI FARM ACTIVIST AND LEADER OF SMALL COTTON FARMERS PRESSURE GROUP VIDARBHA JAN ANDOLAN SAMITI INFORMED IN A PRESS RELEASE TODAY.VJAS WILL SUPPORT “ART OF LIVING” CONFIDENCE RESTORATION EFFORTS AND REMOVAL UNUSUAL DISTRESS IS UP MOST PRIORITY OF THIS CRISIS TIME, KISHOR TIWARI ADDED.

BUT EARLIER EFFORTS OF KRITANS AND PRAVACHANS HAS NOT WORKED AT ALL, BIG PUBLISHED GOVT. SPONSORED YATRA OF INDORE BASED BHAYUJI MAHARAJ HAS FAILED TO SLOW DOWN THE SUICIDES IN LAST APRIL-MAY MONTH OF 2006.THIS SHOULD BE INSTRUMENT OF LOCAL ADMINISTRATION TO DIVERT THIS MAIN ISSUE OF FARMERS SUICIDES THAT ANTI-FARMERS POLICIES OF STATE HAS CREATED HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT IN RURAL VIDARBHA WHICH HAS ACCUMULATED THIS DISTRESS, RESULTING DAILY SUICIDES, KISHOR TIWARI INFORMED.

COMPLETE FAILURE OF PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SUPPORT SYSTEMS IN RURAL VIDARBHA THAT INCLUDE FARMING, HEALTH, EDUCATION, EMPLOYMENT AND SOCIAL GOVERNANCE IS DUE TO WRONG POLICIES IMPLEMENTED BY THE GOVT., HOW SPIRITUAL LEADER CAN RESTORE THESE SUPPORT SYSTEM UNLESS ADMINISTRATION STARS CORRECTING IT,KISHOR TIWARI ASKED.

THEN WHAT IMMEDIATE SOLUTION TO THIS VIDARBHA AGRARIAN CRISIS ,WHEN EVERY BODY ASKED US ,AS IT’S PROBLEM RELATED TO 70% POPULATION OF INDIA THE PACKAGES FORMULA WILL NOT WORKED, GOVT. OF INDIA HAS TO CHANGE THE POLICIES WHICH ARE WORKING AGAINST OF FARMERS AT LARGE COTTON GROWERS IN PARTICULAR .WE HAVE BEEN DEMANDING FRESH CREDIT TO ALL FARMERS ,HIKE IN PROCUREMENT PRICE OF RAW COTTON IF THAT IS NOT POSSIBLE THEN COMPLETE BAN ON IMPORTED COTTON SEED, PESTICIDE ,FERTILIZER AND RAW COTTON BELLS. BUT NON POLITICAL PARTIES IN INDIA ARE PUTTING THE PRESSURE ON GOVT. ON THESE DEMANDS MORE OVER UPA GOVT. IS RUNNING THE SAME AGENDA OF OLD NDA GOVT. WHEN PRIME MINISTER VISITED VIDARBHA,VJAS SUBMITTED "INTEGRATED FARMERS SUICIDE
CONTROL PROGRAMME" WHICH WAS COVERING FOLLOWING DEMANDS

1. AS MORE THAN 90% ARE TAKING CROP-LOAN FROM PRIVATE MONEY LENDERS AS THEY DEFAULTER OF BANK DUE TO VERY OLD DUES HENCE CENTRAL GOVT. SHOULD GIVE RS.5000/- CRORE FOR FARMERS' OLD DEBT ADJUSTMENTS AND FOR FRESH CROP LOAN TO EVERY FARMER IN ORDER TO STOP THEIR EXPLOITATION.

2. CENTRAL GOVT. SHOULD GIVE AT LEAST RS.3000/- CAPITAL MOBILIZATION FUND TO MAHARASHTRA GOVT. AND DIRECT THEM TO PROCURE RAW COTTON @ RS.3000/- PER QUINTAL UNDER MONOPOLY PROCUREMENT SCHEME.

3. HIKE IN IMPORT DUTY OF COTTON UP TO 60% WITH LISTING OF COTTON UNDER NON-OGL ITEM.

4. SPECIAL SUBSIDY TO ALL FOOD GRAIN CROP FARMING @ RS.5000/-PER ACRES.

5. VIDARBHA RURAL HEALTH, EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT SUPPORT SYSTEM IS COMPLETELY COLLAPSED HENCE CENTRAL HELP OF RS.3000/- FOR RESTORATION OF HEALTH, EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT SERVICE IN RURAL VIDARBHA.

6. IN VIDARBHA ONLY 7% FARMERS ARE COVERED UNDER IRRIGATION AND THERE IS RS.5000/- BACKLOG THAT SHOULD BE RELEASED IN THIS SPECIAL PACKAGE.

AS ALL DEMANDS WERE SHOWN DUSTBIN THE RESULT IS BEFORE US THAT IN LAST FORTNIGHT MAXIMUM SUICIDE HAVE BEEN REPORTED, KISHOR TIWARI INFORMED.

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PLEASE ARRANGE TO RELEASE THIS PRESS NOTE
THANKING YOU,
YOURS TRULY,


KISHOR TIWARI

PRESIDENT
VIDARBHA JANADOLAN SAMITI
CONTACT-MOBILE-09422108846

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