Rau takes on state CM over farmer suicides

MUMBAI: It’s not only the BJP-Shiv Sena that is blaming the Congress-led governments at the Centre and in Maharashtra for the farmers’ suicides. Criticism is also coming from within the party.

Prabha Rau, president of Pradesh Congress, has written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with details of the failure. Ms Rau has also written a similar letter to chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, her bete noire in the party.

Last week, several Congress legislators from districts reporting suicides had raised concerns about the crisis. Ms Rau had admitted that the relief measures announced by the state as well as the Centre had not brought succour to the farmers.

This time, however, the MPCC president formalised her displeasure by writing to the Prime Minister who had announced the package on July 1 in Nagpur. The letter points out how most of the measures had not reached the target farmers.

“That is why suicides have peaked up even after the announcement of this package. Most of the relief measures have not percolated down yet,” Ms Rau said. Criticism by the MPCC president will only strengthen the stir being spearheaded by the BJP-Sena against the failure of the relief packages.