Maha shocker! Unable to feed children, woman farmer sets herself ablaze

Mumbai, Sep 7: A 40-year-old woman farmer committed suicide in Maharashtra's drought-hit Marathwada region as she was unable to feed her five children.

As per an NDTV report, after sending her young children outside, Manisha Gatkal doused herself with kerosene and set herself afire on August 29 inside her home in Ambi village of Osmanabad district.

Gatkal ended her life set herself ablaze due to lack of work and food.

Gatkal's husband Laxman told the channel, "We are really very poor. There was no food. I had no work... When I got some work I went out. She latched the door and killed herself."

Earlier last month, a 40-year-old debt-ridden farmer allegedly committed suicide by jumping before a speeding train at Panewadi in Nandgaon taluka of Nashik district, railway police said.

According to Manmad railway police, the relatives of the deceased farmer-- Sanjay Kisan Wagh-- told them that he must have taken the extreme step as he was unable to repay the loan after suffering crop losses due to unseasonal rain and hail-storm.

This incident once again raises the plight of farmers in the drought-hit regions of Maharashtra and nothing concrete has been done for their welfare.

A record 1,306 farmers committed suicide in Maharashtra during the one-year period of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in office - between May 20, 2014, to May 25, 2015, a farmers' watchdog body said.

This figure is around 40 per cent higher than the same period between May 2013-May 2014, said Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti chief Kishore Tiwari.

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