Faced with a whopping electricity bill of Rs35 lakhs, residents of three villages in Amravati want Abdul Kalam’s permission to end their lives.
NAGPUR: Jagdish Bonde, 50, is sure about the decision to end his life. So sure that he has written to President A P J Abdul Kalam. Bonde is not the only one. A thousand farming families in three villages of Amravati have shocked the wits out of the local administration by writing to the President of their desire to end their lives. Reason?
The villagers are bankrupt cotton farmers who do not have the money to pay off the electricity bills that have stacked up to a whopping Rs35 lakhs. Ironically, a little less than a month back Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh had announced a special package to bail out the beleaguered debt-ridden farmers of Vidarbha.
Bonde is from Pusda — about 21 km from Amravati town — which is one such village. Rohankheda and Nandura are the other two villages. Pusda owes the Maharastra State Electricity Board (MSEB) more than Rs7 lakhs. A few days ago the village was given a notice for disconnection. “The villagers haven’t paid the electricity charges for the last five years,” says a spokesperson of the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company (MEDCL).
“We are unable to pay the charges,” admits Bonde. “We expressed our inability to pay the bills many times but haven’t got any respite. Ending ourselves is the last resort.”
The villagers complain that the power bills have been soaring despite 9-10 hours of daily load shedding.
“Due to crop failure, we are not in a position to pay the high bill amount, and therefore we should be allowed to end our lives,” the letter says.
Four months ago, farmers from Fubgaon village in Chandur Bazaar block had also written to Kalam seeking permission for mass suicide.
“What else can we do? We are not getting good prices to cotton, the losses are soaring, debt burden rising, load-shedding is rampant, families are tattering, children are falling off the schools, what else can we do?” asks a seething Pramod Mhatre.
Pusda's New Year opened with one of its farmers committing suicide, unable to bear the debt burden anymore. Across Vidarbha, the number of farmers committing suicide is rising. By the end of 2005, it had touched the 200-mark. It stands at 228 today.
Bonde informs that Pusda, Rohankheda and Nandura Gram Panchayat passed a resolution against paying up the electricity bills. Following it, the MSEDC officials rushed to the Amravati District Collector Ravindra Jadhav for his intervention. “The electricity company hasn't snapped the supply as a humanitarian gesture,” says Jadhav.
The collector is learnt to have held a series of meetings with the irate villagers and company officials on Friday. He also had talks with representatives of BJP, Shiv Sena, the Swatantra Bharat Paksha and Shetkari Sanghatna to find a way out of the imbroglio.With the strong backing of Sharad Joshi-led Shetkari Sanghatna, the villages are clearly on the warpath against the government and in no mood to pay the dues.
“We've made them clear that we will pay only electricity charges, not the surcharge or tax or any other cess, whatsoever,” says a defiant Bonde.
){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}