9 farmers commit suicide in Vidarbha in a day

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

Nagpur, Oct 25: As many as nine farmers committed suicide in Vidarbha yesterday, taking the number to 1,020 since June 2005, activists here said.

According to Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS), a voluntary organisation working for farmers in the region, the nine farmers who took the extreme step yesterday include four from Amravati district, two from Chandrapur and one each from Buldhana, Akola and Wardha districts.

The VJAS said yesterday's suicides had taken the number in the Kharif season (June-October) this year to 480 against 91 during the same period last year. The number of suicides has touched 806 this year, as per figures compiled by VJAS.

The organisation plans to highlight the plight of farmers in the region in a novel way in village Kolzari in Yavatmal district tomorrow.

The widow and the son of a farmer who committed suicide recently will perform a 'pooja' of the statues of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, Union Minister for Agriculture Sharad Pawar and Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh.

This would signal the launch of a hunger strike by activists to demand better prices for cotton cultivators of Vidarbha, a VJAS press release here said. Kolzari is the village that the Prime Minister was scheduled to visit during his recent tour of Vidarbha, but plans were changed at the last minute due to security concerns.

UNI

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