The Maharashtra government Friday launched Rs 593-crore coordinated agriculture development project, a first public-private partnership venture in the crisis-hit Vidarbha region.
The Maharashtra government Friday launched Rs 593-crore coordinated agriculture development project, a first public-private partnership venture in the crisis-hit Vidarbha region with an aim to stem farmers' suicides and augment the agriculture income.
“I want to stop the suicides completely,” the chief minister, Ashok Chavan, said in Amravati launching the new initiative, which is backed by the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) and both the state and central governments. “Suicides have come down in 2009 as compared to previous years," the chief minister said quoting figures, "but it is not satisfactory.”
The project comes on the heels of two special packages for the six most peasant suicide-prone districts of western Vidarbha. Brain-child of the secretary to the department of cooperation, Sudhir Goel, the project conceived last year aims to build the beleaguered farmers’ capacity in production and marketing, thereby augmenting their incomes.
The Sir Ratan Tata Trust, Mumbai, will contribute 13.5%, private sector and banks will pitch in with 21%, the IFAD is contributing 33.8% in the form of soft loans, while state and central governments would bear 31.7% of the total project cost.
Concerned over continuing farmer suicides, Chavan said he is looking into the issue with all seriousness. He called for a consistent approach to solve the problem and said the CM’s package for distressed farmers would continue for the next five years. He said he would request the Prime Minister for additional funds for farmer welfare schemes.
“Unless the suicide number comes to zero and smile returns on the faces of the farmers of Vidarbha, I will continue to focus on this problem,” said Chavan. "It is our endeavour to give full justice to Vidarbha,” he said. Funds would be allocated to all the ongoing and soon to be launched irrigation projects to ensure their timely completion, he said.
The latest project would focus on coordination between all authorities and departments, overcoming this major lacuna that existed in the execution of all the previous packages.
Meanwhile, the divisional commissioner of Amravati Dinesh Waghmare has earlier this week ordered a resurvey of the total number of farmers’ suicides in the division. He has asked the district collectors to review all the cases anew to see if the eligible cases were left out of the Rs 1 lakh compensation.
The number of families eligible for compensation has shown a dramatic fall in the past four years. Of the 1658 farmers who committed suicide in 2006, only 672 were declared as “eligible” suicides, meaning their families got Rs 1 lakh compensation given that those farmers had committed suicide, according to the government surveys, owing to factors of agrarian crisis, most importantly debt. In 2007, the eligible cases dropped to 294 of the 1404 total suicides; followed by 347 of the 1356 suicides in 2008 and 274 of the 1156 suicides in 2009, the government data shows.
Waghmare’s orders would mean looking into each case left out as ‘ineligible suicide’, where a committee in every district headed by the collector had decided that those farmers had not committed suicide due to agrarian distress but personal reasons.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}