scam blamed for suicides of vidarbha farmers -TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Cow scam blamed for suicides of farmers

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Nagpur: Farmer leader Kishor Tiwari has demanded that criminal cases should be filed against politicians who have taken subsidized cows under government schemes. He held these leaders indirectly responsible for suicides of seven farmers during Ganeshotsav.
Tiwari said on Sunday that in the last three days seven farmers committed suicide in Vidarbha as they were denied help by the government and loan by banks. The deceased farmers are (village and district names in bracket): Vilas Akulwar (Saoli, Chandrapur),
Madhukar Wakode (Bhendwal, Buldhana), Janrao Thakre (Jawla Shahpur, Amravati), Shrikrushna Muyande (Watali, Akola), Nepal Shahare (Chandrad, Bhandara), Shamrao Gedam (Chinchewada, Gondia) and Baban Nagrale (Khapri, Wardha).
With these, the number of suicides in 2008 has reached 562, he said. He claimed that the deaths did not stop even after implementation of Rs 1,075 crore Chief Minister's package and Rs 3,750 crore Prime Minister's package because the benefits did not reach the needy farmers. "They were appropriated by politicians as the cow distribution scam has shown."
The farmer leader alleged that former Yavatmal collector Harshadeep Kamble had committed large scale irregularities in implementation of the government schemes and to prevent any outcry he made the local politicians beneficiaries of these schemes.