UNENDING HARDSHIPS FOR VIDARBHA FARMERS-Times of India

UNENDING HARDSHIPS FOR VIDARBHA FARMERS-Times of India

UNENDING HARDSHIPS FOR VIDARBHA FARMERS Waiver: Farm activists not enthused Ramu Bhagwat | TNN http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOI&BaseHref=NGTOI/2009/01/01&PageLabel=5&EntityId=Ar00501&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T Nagpur: “I am completely satisfied with the new Rs 6208 crore relief package for farmers announced by chief minister Ashok Chavan,” Pune University vice chancellor Narendra Jadhav, who as a one-man commission studied the agriculture crisis in the state and presented his report to the state government five months ago, told ToI on Wednesday. Following reports of unending farmer suicides, especially in Vidarbha region even after implantation of the CM-PM packages totalling Rs 5,000 crore, the state had appointed Jadhav, who is also an economist, to study the situation. In his report submitted to the cabinet on July 24, Jadhav was unsparing about the lapses in the implementation of the PM-CM packages and also the Central loan waiver for farmers announced in the last Union budget and upgraded subsequently to Rs 71,000 crore waiver package. “The Chavan government has kept its word. On December 28, at a highlevel meeting held in Nagpur, Chavan gave me a commitment that 19 of the recommendations contained in my report would be considered favourably. I am happy that 13 of my suggestions are being implemented and the remaining six are at an advanced stag e of consideration,” Jadhav said. He refused to comment on the downgrading of his recommendation of waiver to the tune of Rs 50,000 across the board to all farmers to Rs 20,000. Meanwhile, the opposition as well as farmers’ activists have found nothing to enthuse in the Rs 6,208 crore package the CM announced on Tuesday at the fag end of the legislature’s winter session here. “Instead of targeting most distressed farmers of Vidarbha, the new package once again is inclusive for all regions, even areas which deserve no government largesse,” said Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti president Kishore Tiwari. “More unfortunately, the package is silent on addressing basic problems like farm infrastructure spending, providing much needed food security to the economically stressed, improving credit flow even as figures suggest total reluctance on the part of the bankers to provide loans to those who joined the list of the eligible courtesy the Central loan waiver,” Tiwari rued. “The official figures are give-away. The chief minister has stated on the floor of the House that that the Central loan waiver in Maharashtra was to the tune of Rs 7,800 crore. When the scheme was announced, Maharashtra was supposed to get Rs 11,680 crore as its share in the waiver pie. This makes it clear that the one-time settlement part was hardly availed of by farmers so the shortfall of Rs 5,000 crore,” explained Tiwari. “Even the education aid is too meagre. Paying for education of children after 12th standard is costly. But the government has agreed to pay for school fee only and not higher education. Also the help promised for critically ill is vague as the government is not ready to accept the most authentic report of March 2006, the first of its kind door-to-door survey in Vidarbha’s six distressed districts which identified nearly a lakh of families with critically ill members. These families hardly get any health care in villages and can’s afford costly medical treatment available in cities. Now the government will undertake a fresh survey for this purpose, Tiwari pointed out. “One of the reasons for BJP retaining power in MP was imaginative scheme like providing Rs 30,000 per family for a farmer’s daughter’s marriage. But Chavan has failed to emulate it. There are 3.3 lakh families with marriageable daughters in the six districts The mass marriage scheme we have has been hit by fraud and privileges class getting the benefits,” Tiwari alleged. “The new package may also meet the same fate as the earlier ones which miserably failed to remove the distress,” he concluded. ====================================================================================================================

Posted by VIDARBHA FARMER SUICIDE at 9:21 PM

No money for food security and no direct aid to 5000 farm widows -Rs.6000 crore farmer package is not relief package but cooperative banks rehabilitation package

Nagpur-31st December 2008

In letter to Mahashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti has strongly criticised Rs.6208 crore farmers relief package as there is no direct help to dying cotton growers of suicideprone six districts of west vidarbha .Rs.6208 crore so called farmers relief package has been purely rehabilitation and revival package for cooperative banks run by politicians who rule the state government. This package is as ridiculous as earlier one as it failed to give simple food security to 4.24 lacs distress farm families and direct help for daughters marriage of 3.3 lacs farm families in difficulty and despair which is main cause despair and distress ,kishore tiwari informed today.

Provision for free education up to 12^th standard is not enough ,there is problem of higher education in professional colleges due to very higher fees to vidarbha distressed farmers hence it should revised .as free health care is concern the resurvey of illness and then free treatment is not serious effort as new identified patients will be political leaders as they become beneficiaries all other schemes,we need free health care to all farmers in vidarbha ,tiwari demanded.

5000 Vidarbha Farm Widows Completely Ignored

West vidarbha has reported morethan 5000 farm suicides and administration has rejected most of cases for compensation and it is grate need of hour to financial help to these dying widow’s families and it was expected that this Rs.6208 crore package will spare at least Rs.2 crore for the same but babus failed to look this serious problem too,tiwari added.

it is highly suspected that this relief package is not targeted to give any benefit to these dying farmers because main demand to waive of crop loan up to Rs.50,000 irrespective of land holding of dry land farmers under agrarian crisis of west vidarbha has not been covered more over it has been designed to cover the prosperous farmers of west maharashtra as it happened in last Rs.71,000 crore loan waiver ,tiwari allged

‘we welcome the decision of providing health and education security to distress farmers and but food security and rural employment support to all identified critical cases of west vidarbha are till missing in this package as no relief is there in new relief package and this will keep these dying farm community out of relief net. We will move to high court against this bogus relief packages which are turning to be hoax and eyewash’ Kishor Tiwari informed today.

Thanking you,

Yours faithfully,

For VIDARBHA JAN ANDOLAN SAMITI

KISHORE TIWARI

PRESIDENT

kishortiwari@gmail.com

contact-09422108846

Govt.of maharshta spends zero rupees on minority in this fiscal year-mumbaimirror reports

Govt.of maharshta spends zero rupees on minority in this fiscal year

http://www.mumbaimirror.com/article/2/200812232008122302320951714836734/Zero#ftr2

Zero

That's what the Deshmukh administration spent on Minority Affairs out of the allocated Rs 167 crore. Other departments too spent only an average of 34 per cent of their funds in eight months

Deshmukh has left Ashok Chavan with the tough task of utilising the remaining 66% funds in less than 4 months Looks like development schemes in the state took a back seat in the last eight months. In the current financial year, the Democratic Front government spent just 34 per cent of the Rs 29,000 crore annual plan funds, leaving Chief Minister Ashok Chavan with the rather difficult job of utilising the remaining 66 per cent in less than four months. Else, the funds will lapse. Department-wise figures of government spending in the financial year 2008-09, available with this newspaper, reveal some shocking facts. The Minorities Development Department, the brainchild of former CM Vilasrao Deshmukh, failed to utilise a single rupee of the allocated Rs 167 crore until December 15. Out of the 26 government departments, only the Food & Civil Supplies department utilised 100 per cent of the allocated funds. The department, held by NCP man Sunil Tatkare until December 7, has now been given to minister Ramesh Bang. The School Education department, which was under former Minister Vasant Purke, has utilised 72 per cent of the funds allocated to it. Now, Purke has been dropped from the ministry. The Home Department, which was with R R Patil until December 1, could use only 24 per cent of the Rs 44 crore allocated to it. Departments such as Environment, Medical Education, Technical Education, Tourism & Cultural Affairs, Revenue & Forests, Law & Judiciary, Housing and Employment & Self Employment have not been able to utilise more than 10 per cent of their funds. The Minorities Development Department (0 per cent) and Housing Department (6.4 per cent), which were with were with Deshmukh, miserably failed to utilise their funds. If utilisation of funds in departments handled by Congress and NCP ministers is compared, the NCP men are slightly ahead of their Congress counterparts. Departments like PWD (32 per cent funds utilised), Water Resources (38 per cent), Rural Development (34 per cent), Finance & Planning (10 per cent), Tribal Development (31 per cent) and Water Supply (47 per cent) are with the NCP. Under Congress control, the figures are General Administration Department (72 per cent funds utilised), Urban Development Department (36 per cent), Housing (6.4 per cent), Industry (75 per cent), Revenue & Forests (11 per cent), Agriculture & PDF (25 per cent), Law & Judiciary (0 per cent), Social Justice (41 per cent), Co-operation (30 per cent) and Women & Child Welfare (56 per cent). If the overall figures are compared, most of the departments have not been able to spend more than 34 per cent of the allocation. Now, they have only three-and-a-half months left to spend the rest. Government officials fear that most of departments will now go on a spending spree, compromising the overall quality of development works. Many departments have been known to submit their bills on March 31, the last day of the financial year, to show that they have utilised their funds.

KISHORE TIWARI--An Encyclopaedia on information on suicides in Vidarbha-Times Of India

KISHORE TIWARI--An Encyclopaedia on information on suicides in Vidarbha-Times Of India

KISHORE TIWARI--An Encyclopaedia on information on suicides in Vidarbha
Publication: Times Of India -Date: Dec 23, 2008-

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=TkdUT0kvMjAwOC8xMi8yMyNQYzAwMjEx&Mode= HTML&Locale=english-skin-custom

KISHORE TIWARI, a mechanical engineer-turned-farm activist, has been working for farmers’ cause in the entire suicide belt of Vidarbha for the past ten years. Tiwari is regarded as an encyclopaedia on information on suicides in Vidarbha. His NGO, Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti, is the lone organisation in the region which has documentation of each and every farmer who has committed suicides in the last ten years beginning from the first suicide of Ramdas Chinaya Ambarwar, whose widow Saraswati has still not got any compensation from the government. When Kalavati Bandurkar, who was visited by Rahul Gandhi in July, got huge compensation, it was a triumph for Tiwari.
========================================================

please help more than 5000 dying vidarbha farm widows
contact-kishortiwari@gmail.com

Posted by VIDARBHA FARMER SUICIDE at 10:45 PM

Vidarbha Agrarian crisis-Tale of 2 Kalawatis

Vidarbha Agrarian crisis-Tale of 2 Kalawatis

PrintClose Tale of 2 Kalawatis Krishna Kumar Yavatmal (Maharashtra), December 21, 2008 One attained national fame after Rahul Gandhi held forth on her at the debate on the confidence motion. The other, like the celebrity Kalawati before her discovery by the heir apparent, continues to wallow in poverty, unheralded and ignored by the development gravy train. Until a few months back, no one wanted to step into Kalawati Bandurkar’s chappals. The mother of nine — seven girls and two boys — lived in a thatched hut on encroached land. She was her family’s only breadwinner after her husband’s suicide four years back. That was until Rahul Gandhi landed at her doorstep. The heir apparent named Kalawati in a speech extolling the Indo- US nuclear deal — which was then still in the works — and how it would help people like Kalawati. Overnight, the woman turned into a celebrity at Pandharkawada. Applications and files bearing her name began to move swiftly in the panchayat samiti office without her running around to push them anymore. “ My life has changed a lot, and for the better. He just came and talked to me for 15 minutes, and nothing has been the same ever since,” she says. Kalawati got an electricity connection within a month of Rahul’s speech ( it didn’t have to wait for the nuclear deal). A tap water connection has also been fitted outside her door so that she and her family don’t have to travel far to fetch water. “ I had received no compensation even four years after my husband Purshottam’s suicide. But after his visit, I got Rs 3 lakh as compensation, out of which I have already paid Rs 1 lakh to my husband’s creditors. “ We had also been struggling to get below poverty line and caste certificates for more than two years. But now, all I have to do is tell my name, and my work is done,” she says. Indeed, Kalawati has even received some out- of- turn benefits, with the gram panchayat promptly transferring the encroached land on which she lives in her name. Private donors have made a beeline to be of help to her. Someone replaced her thatched roof with a tin shed; another donated her a sewing machine. A third has gifted her daughters a bicycle they can ride to school. Kishore Tiwari, president of the Vidarbha Jan Andolan, has even donated her a buffalo. But is Kalawati Bandurkar’s metamorphosis symbolic of Rahul’s impact on people’s lives, or simply a totemic change? The answer lies a few feet away, inside the door- less, window- less and wall- less house of the other Kalawati. Four bamboo sticks and a couple of sheets overhead form the hovel of Kalawati Koichde, a senior citizen, who lives with and supports her paralysed 70- yearold husband, Tamba Koichde. Their prized possession is a ragtag charpoy. “ Our walls fell away a couple of years ago. But no one from the panchayat samiti or the collectorate office has bothered to help us or even visit us,” she says. “ My husband’s legs are paralysed and he can’t even see properly. So it is me who fends for both of us.” Her married son lives nearby. “ We do get to eat and sleep at his place, but that is happening only because I work in the fields every day and bring in money,” she claims. Her husband nods in agreement. “ We want Rahul Gandhi to visit our house too. Only then will we get even basic facilities,” he says. Their life is indeed symbolic of the village. “ Only one family has benefited from Rahul’s visit, when more than half the villagers live below the poverty line,” says Purshottam Tekam, a resident. “ We wanted Rahul to adopt the whole village.” Even the younger Kalawati agrees. “ I am taunted when I go to the fields to work. They ask me why I should work when I have a lot of money,” she says. “ Some allege I must have narrated a sob story to Rahul, insinuating that I did not deserve what has come my way.” That’s the reality Rahul never discovered during his whistlestop break at this nondescript village. His Discovery of India remains incomplete. Courtesy: Mail Today PrintClose URL for this article : http://indiatoday.digitaltoday.in/content_mail.php?option=com_content&name=print&id=23213 @ Copyright 2008 India Today Group.

Seven debt-ridden farmers commit suicide in Vidarbha-UNI

Seven debt-ridden farmers commit suicide in Vidarbha

Created on : 12/19/2008 6:39:46 PM (NORMAL )

Nagpur, Dec 19 (UNI) As many seven debt-ridden farmers committed suicide in the last 72 hours in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, activists said today.

According to Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS), a voluntary organisation working among farmers in the region, the farmers who ended their lives included two from Amravati district and one each from Wardha, Yavatmal, Akola, Buldhana and Chandrapur districts.

The state government's official figure of suicides in the six worst affected districts was 1,269, VJAS press release said. The government's figure for suicides in the last 5 years was 5,157, it said.

VJAS has demanded that the recommendations of the committee headed by Pune University Vice Chancellor Dr Narendra Jadhav should be implemented forthwith to provide succour to farmers in Vidarbha. The recommendations included loan waiver of Rs 50,000 across the board for all farmers in the region, it added.

UNI AB OBB RL AS1830

Seven debt-ridden farmers commit suicide in Vidarbha-UNI

Seven debt-ridden farmers commit suicide in Vidarbha-UNI

Seven debt-ridden farmers commit suicide in Vidarbha-UNI

India Nagpur | Friday, Dec 19 2008 IST


As many seven debt-ridden farmers committed suicide in the last 72 hours in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, activists said today.

According to Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS), a voluntary organisation working among farmers in the region, the farmers who ended their lives included two from Amravati district and one each from Wardha, Yavatmal, Akola, Buldhana and Chandrapur districts.

The state government's official figure of suicides in the six worst affected districts was 1,269, VJAS press release said. The government's figure for suicides in the last 5 years was 5,157, it said.

VJAS has demanded that the recommendations of the committee headed by Pune University Vice Chancellor Dr Narendra Jadhav should be implemented forthwith to provide succour to farmers in Vidarbha. The recommendations included loan waiver of Rs 50,000 across the board for all farmers in the region, it added.

-- (UNI) -- 19BY22.xml

vidarbha farmers suicides-truth of relief packages

vidarbha farmers suicides tops in india

Monday, December 15, 2008

State tops national graph in farmers’ suicides -1,520 In Vidarbha -TIMES NEWS NETWORK

In 2007, 4,238 Ryots Ended Life In State, 1,520 In Vidarbha

Yavatmal: The Union home ministry’s website displays the data of farmers’ suicides in 2007 and a close look into the available version indicates that Maharashtra tops the entire country with regard to the suicide of distressed farmers. According to the website, 16,632 farmers ended their lives in 2007 and Maharashtra had the highest figure of 4,238 of whom 1,520 are reported from Vidarbha region alone.
As a matter of fact, the Central government has granted a huge sum of Rs 3,750 crore in the form of the Prime Minister’s Special Package and the state government granted Rs 1,075 crore as Chief Minister’s package for the rehabilitation of the distressed farmers of Vidarbha. Now the billion dollar question is: Where had the fund from the special packages gone? And who is still responsible for unabated suicide?
A leading farm activist Kishor Tiwari, speaking to TOI, said that on an average 4,000 farmers committed suicide in last four years and 70% of these suicides have been reported from Vidarbha region alone.
While ridiculing the tall claim of the state government about the fall in suicides after the implementation of the special packages, the information of suicide figure given by a government agency —Vasantrao Naik Swawalamban Mission — shows an upward trend (in six worst-hit Vidarbha districts) in 2008 than in 2007 and the suicide figure from 2001 till December 10, 2008 is 5,142.
The government has constituted eight inquiry commissions/committees since 2004 and the reports have also been submitted from time to time. According to these reports, over 10 lakh farmers are distressed. Over one lakh families are deprived of proper health care facilities while 3.60 lakh families are facing the financial burden to meet the expenditure of their daughters’ marriage. Over 80% farmers, who are denied of the bank loan being defaulters, are forced to knock on the doors of the unscrupulous private money lenders and their greedy touts for meeting their urgent financial needs.
Tiwari urged the government to ensure “food, health and education security” to poor farmers in the region so that they can lead a dignified life as envisaged under the Constitution of India.
He demanded that the state should provide financial assistance to the poor and needy farmers for their daughters’ marriage and also ensure them of the facility for fresh crop loan at subsidised interest rate.
The Union home ministry’s website also shows an upward trend in the crime rate across the country vis-a-vis farmers’ suicide in the state. The current trend is that the suicide wave is speedily moving from western Vidarbha to eastern Vidarbha districts which may take an alarming situation in the days to come.
Tiwari further urged the chief minister Ashok Chavan to look into the matter seriously and come out with an effective action plan to curb it during the current winter session of the State Legislative Assembly in Nagpur.

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National
Maharashtra tops the list of farmers' suicides

New Delhi (PTI): Fourty-six farmers commit suicide every day in this country even as packages were rolled out in a bid to bailout the debt-ridden community from crisis.

A whopping 16,632 cases of suicides by farmers, including 2,369 women were reported across the country last year with Maharashtra retaining the dubious distinction of having the largest number of such incidents despite a slump in figures.

Farmers' suicide constituted 14.4 per cent of the total 1,22,637 suicides in the country in 2007, the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) said in its latest report, Accidental Deaths and Suicide Report -- 2007'.

In 2006, the figures were 17,060 and since 1997 there were 1,82,936 cases of farmers' suicide in the country.

In a grim reminder of the appalling conditions of the farmers in this agriculture dominated country, the NCRB said besides Maharashtra, six other states have recorded over 1,000 cases of farmers' suicides each in 2007.

Maharashtra, where the Central Government pitched in with a special package, reported 4,238 suicides last year, a decline of 215 from 2006, it said.

Karnataka (2,135), Andhra Pradesh (1,797), Chhattisgarh (1,593), Madhya Pradesh (1,263), Kerala (1,263) and West Bengal (1,102) followed Maharashtra in the list.

These states were in the top-seven list in 2006 too. While Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh showed a decline in the number of farmers' suicide last year compared to 2006, such cases witnessed an increase in Karnataka, Kerala and West Bengal.

9 debt-ridden farmers commit suicide in Vidarbha-UNI REPORTS

India

9 debt-ridden farmers commit suicide in Vidarbha

Nagpur Friday, Dec 12 2008 IST

As many as nine debt-ridden farmers committed suicide in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra
in the last 72 hours, activists said today.
According to Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS), a voluntary organisation working among farmers in the region, those who ended their lives included five from Yavatmal district, two from Buldhana district and one each from Bhandara and Amravati districts.
The condition of the distressed farmers in the region had aggravated because of the failure of the crop due to bad weather, a VJAS release said here. The government must start buying cotton at Rs 3,000 per quintal across the board to provide succour to the cultivators, it added.
-- (UNI) -- 12BY1.xml