Farmers' suicides in Vidarbha touch 1,000

Nagpur, Oct 22: The number of suicides by farmers in Vidarbha since June 2005 has touched 1,000, the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS) has claimed.

The VJAS, a voluntary organisation, claimed that four farmers committed suicide in the region on Friday, taking the total number of suicides to 1,000. The four farmers included two from Buldhana district and one each from Wardha and Yavatmal districts, they said.

The VJAS said the decision of the state government to pay Rs 1,900 per quintal for cotton this year under the Monopoly Cotton Procurement Scheme (MCPS) has pushed down prices in the open market to Rs 1,500 and less. This has put the cultivator in Vidarbha in further trouble, it claimed.

The NGO has criticised the government for announcing the price over three weeks before the commencement of the actual procurement.

This had prompted traders to hammer down the prices in private deals, it said.

UNI