Govt data shows more than 12,000 Maharashtra farmers committed suicide in 3 years
- by Ramsha-Rizwan
- Jun 24, 2019 11:56
From January to March 2019, around 610 farmers have committed suicide.Out of these610 ,around 192 cases were eligible for financial assistance according to the Relief and Rehabilitation minister,Subhash Deshmukh. The minister told the House in a written reply that around 6,888 cases were found to be eligible for government aid after investigation by district-level committees.
It was informed in the Legislative Assembly in Maharashtra that more than 12,000 farmers have committed suicide in Maharashtra in the time period of three years from 2015 to 2018. Till now, the family members of 6,845 farmers have been given financial assistance of Rs 1 lakh each, the minister added.Maharashtra Agriculture Minister has made plea to farmers to ‘not think of committing suicide’.
Meanwhile,Congress has called that PM Modi ignored Maharashtra farmer-drought issues and that the rally was a flop. From the 192 cases that were eligible for financial assistance,the financial compensation has been given to the kin of 182 farmers, Deshmukh also said.
The remaining cases are also being scrutinised to check their eligibility for compensation.
Farmer suicide has become a major issue infront of the government. Financial crisis,lack of irrigation system,crop failure and huge depts have made farmer suicides more frequent in the past years. Although compensation and lone waiver of farmers have been a central issue in the manifesto of several political parties in the General Elections of 2019,the problem seems to have found no solution and relief to the famers.There is a need to create awareness regarding financial aid available for farmers because a lot of farmers do not know about the help available by the government. One of the major issue that is irrigation water is becoming more and more prevalent. With water crisis in Chennai , a lot of states will soon face water shortage and thus, chances of problems in crop irrigation will increase. Different policies are needed to be made to curb these problems so that farmer suicide in India can become lower in the near future.
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