Congress questions PM Modi on farmer suicides in Maharashtra

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh raised questions ahead of Modi’s landing in Wardha. 'On an average day in Maharashtra, seven farmers take their own lives,' he said.

Mumbai: As Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Vidarbha, the epicentre of farm crisis, the Congress asked the BJP to elaborate on the steps taken to prevent farmers’ suicides in Maharashtra and elsewhere in India and why the Forest Rights Act (FRA) is not being implemented.

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, who is the AICC general secretary in-charge of Communications and former minister in the Dr Manmohan Singh-led UPA government, raised questions ahead of Modi’s landing in Wardha.

“On an average day in Maharashtra, seven farmers take their own lives,” Ramesh said, adding that the "heartbreaking statistic” comes from the state’s minister for Relief and Rehabilitation, who reported that 2,366 farmers died by suicide between January and October last year.

“The reasons are evident as 60 per cent of districts faced drought conditions last year but no help arrived from the government. When crops were damaged by unseasonal rains in more than half of the state, farmers were extended loan waivers, but 6.56 lakh farmers were deprived of this relief due to software glitches,” he said.

"In the face of this state-sponsored callousness, the Congress has consistently guaranteed farmers MSP as per the Swaminathan Committee’s recommendation, a farm loan waiver with a Permanent Commission set up to implement it smoothly, and settlement of all crop insurance claims within 30 days,” he said and sought to know the BJP’s vision to support Maharashtra’s and India’s farmers.

Ramesh pointed out that in 2006, the Congress had passed the revolutionary FRA which granted Adivasi and forest-dwelling communities legal rights to manage their own forests, and economically benefit from forest produce they collect.

“The BJP government, however, has obstructed the implementation of the FRA, depriving millions of Adivasis of its benefits. Only 52 per cent (2,06,620 claims) of the 4,01,046 individual claims filed have been granted, and land titles distributed cover only 23.5 per cent (11,769 sq. km) of the 50,045 sq. km eligible for community rights. Why has the BJP government in Maharashtra failed to provide Adivasi communities with their rights,” he said.