Cong leader on fast for Vidarbha relief

MUMBAI: The Congress-led UPA government at the Centre and the DF government in Maharashtra faced a major embarrassment on Tuesday when veteran Congress leader Mohan Dharia began an indefinite fast in Pune on the issue of farmer suicides.

Mr Dharia, 82, is demanding a debt-waiver or a one-time settlement of agriculture loans for the farmers of Vidarbha, among other measures, to check the spree of suicides. Since June ’05, the agrarian crisis in Vidarbha has caused around 1,100 suicides so far.

Ironically, some 500 farmers have taken their lives due to indebtedness since July 1, ’06, when prime minister Manmohan Singh rolled out a special relief package for them, with an outlay of Rs 3,750 crore. Before the PM’s package, the Congress-NCP government in the state had announced a Rs 1,075-crore relief plan in December ’05, but it too failed to put a check on suicides.

Last month, Mr Dharia, a Gandhian and former Union minister, met the prime minister and demanded a debt-waiver for Vidarbha farmers. The PM, however, categorically told Mr Dharia that waiving debt would deal a body-blow to the economy of banks and it was not on the government’s agenda. This prompted Mr Dharia to announce an indefinite fast from November 14.Last week, chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh virtually ruled out any intervention by the state in cotton pricing and debt-waiver.

Sources said both the Union and state governments tried to persuade Mr Dharia to call off the fast, but the veteran Gandhian did not give in.