Farmer suicides in state continues: NGO

Mumbai, Mar 13 (UNI) As many as 28 debt-trapped farmers have committed suicide in various parts of Maharashtra after the Rs 60,000 crore farmers' loan waiver, announced in the Union budget by Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram on February 29, an NGO claimed.

According to a report received here from the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS), a Non-Governmental Organisation crusading for the cause of debt-trapped farmers, at least 22 farmers have committed suicides in Vidarbha region alone since March 1.

The VJAS, citing a particular incident, claimed that a debt-trapped farmer Vijay Panchal and his wife Meena had committed suicide in Latur district by consuming poison after being harassed by District Cooperative Bank officials over their failure to repay the loan.

The VJAS has listed the names of farmers who, it claimed, had committed suicide in the Vidarbha region since the announcement of the debt-relief in the Union Budget.

Meanwhile, the VJAS has demanded the removal of the land-holding restriction for loan waiver for farmers and the grant of fresh crop loans to all farmers.

UNI CP NM/MAZ RL BD2007