Ministers in Maharashtra need counselling, not farmers: NCP

MUMBAI: NCP today slammed the Maharashtra government's initiative to provide ' counselling' to farmers in the Yavatmal and Osmanabad districts which report an alarmingly high number of farmer suicides.

"It is not the farmers, but the ministers in this state government who require psychiatric treatment and counselling," NCP spokesman Nawab Malik said here.

Senior leaders in the ruling combine led by BJP, such as the agriculture minister Eknath Khadse, had said that the government was unable to stop farmer suicides. The government was dilly-dallying over announcing compensation package for farmers, Malik said.

While, senior Union cabinet minister Nitin Gadkari had been speaking of using human urine to water plants, he said.

"Farmers don't want counselling, but a good price for their crops and financial assistance in times of distress. This is where the government has failed. It is not the farmers but the ministers who require counselling," said Malik.

The counselling project, an initiative of the health and family welfare department, would be introduced on pilot basis in five tehsils of Yavatmal and Osmanabad districts.

State health minister Deepak Sawant had yesterday said that Anganwadi workers and Accredited Social Health Activists ('ASHA') would be roped in for the project.