Picture gets gloomier as 4 more commit suicide in state

MUMBAI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s promised package is yet to rekindle hope among debt-ridden farmers of Maharashtra. On Monday, three farmers and daughter of another farmer committed suicide in districts of Vidarbha and north Maharashtra.

Mr Singh was on a two-day visit to Vidarbha to assess the situation and meet the farmers and some of the affected families. Kishore, a 22-year-old resident of Umra village in Akot Taluka of Akola district, committed suicide by jumping before a running train on Purna-Khandwa section.

Kishore, whose father has been bed-ridden for the past six years after a paralytic attack, had killed himself following successive crop failures and his inability to service mounting loans.

Shrikant Rangrao Kalbande (23), a farmer of Nimbhora Lahe village near Badnera in Amravati district, killed himself by consuming poison. Mr Kalbande had to take the extreme step after his orange crop was damaged due to lack of water. Mr Kalbande was supporting his aged parents and a handicapped brother.

In the third incident, Rakhi, the eldest daughter of farmer Shivruora Shelgenwar of Shelgaon Deshmukh village in Mehkar Taluka of bordering Buldana district, ended her life by jumping into a well after her father stopped her brother’s education to arrange funds for her marriage, said the police.

In Nashik district another debt-ridden farmer committed suicide by consuming poison at a village in Malegaon. Santosh Borhad (50) of Rajmane village was holding a small land and had taken loan from a bank, police said.

Meanwhile, activists of Shetkari Sanghatana and Swatantra Bharat Party burnt the effigy of the Prime Minister at Vinchur village in Niphad taluka of the district, demanding waiver of the interest on loans to debt-ridden farmers.