Nagpur

As the country looks skywards at the moon-landing this evening, a disturbing development has hit the Vidarbha region of eastern Maharashtra with virtually one farmer committing suicide daily since June 1, in the Yavatmal district, activists said here on Wednesday. Among the worst-hit in the country by the agrarian crisis, a staggering 82 Yavatmal farmers resorted to the desperate measure between June 1 till date, portending a dismal scenario for the government ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, warned Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti President Kishore Tiwari. This is not all. From January 1, at least 1,567 peasants’ lives, including several women, were snuffed out in the 10 districts of Vidarbha region, which is reeling under a series of natural or man-made problems of various kinds, a grim Tiwari told to source.

This 8-month figure (1,567) is itself a ‘new record’ in the past over 25 years after the agrarian crises of Vidarbha erupted first into the public domain after Tiwari started systematically monitoring what he calls an unending ‘farmers genocide’.

The development came days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that India had achieved a record agricultural growth in the past 9 years, he pointed out. However, if this is the tragedy in just one district and one region of a single state, then the data of other regions/states in the country may have more shocking revelations, Tiwari said.

He reiterated that the core issues of agriculture costs, crop and credit are yet to be addressed by the Central government, which has hit the ordinary farmers all over India, particularly Maharashtra, and driving them to take the ultimate step of ending their lives.