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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Sonia's visit did little to ease farmer widow's woes by Sanjeev Chandan

Sonia's visit did little to ease farmer widow's woes by Sanjeev Chandan

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published Published on Nov 22, 2010   modified Modified on Nov 22, 2010

Sonia Gandhi visited a farmer widow's house in August 2004, soon after the UPA came to power. However, this visit did not bring as much change in her life as Rahul Gandhi's visit on July 18, 2008, to Kalawati's house. In fact, the damaged canal that led to the suicide by Ranjana Deshmukh's husband has still not been repaired.

The struggles of Kalawati of Yavatmal and Ranjana Deshmukh of Wardha, both widows of farmer who committed suicide, are as similar and different as they can be. The former hosted the Congress scion Rahul Gandhi and the other hosted his mother Sonia Gandhi at their houses. But the turn in their fortunes has been drastically different. Kalawati was given lakhs by private foundations after Rahul Gandhi mentioned her plight.

However, the widow of Ramesh Deshmukh, who committed suicide on July 27, 2004, was not so lucky. Ramesh's death in Talegaon had attracted the state's attention, since the number of farmers' suicide had crossed over 4,000 that year. The villagers had then refused to accept and cremate 35-year-old Ramesh's dead body.

Sarpanch Ulas Surkar had handled the issue well, and raised the issue with seniors, which resulted in the visit by Sonia Gandhi. The Congress leader met Rajesh's widow Ranjana at her house around 15 days after his suicide. "Prabha Rao, the then Congress leader had made it possible for Sonia Gandhi and the chief minister Sushil Shinde to visit Talegaon and hand over a cheque of Rs 1 lakh to the family," said Surkar.

This money was not enough for the survival of the family, since the reason for the suicide of the head of the family remained unchanged. Ramesh had ended his life partly because of loans he had taken and partly because of the location of a damaged canal, which used to flood his 2.5 acre.

"Officials who accompanied Gandhi had promised to repair the damaged canal, so that it would not damage Ranjana's crop. Also, they had assured to give the village all facilities under the PM's package, including a road to link the farmers' land with the village," said present BJP district secretary Milind Bhende, who used to be a Congress leader and ZP member from Talegaon at that time.

None of the promises made by the politicians were kept, but unfortunately even the administration forgot this widow of a farmer with two daughters and a son to take care of. "I married my elder daughter with the Rs 1 lakh given by the administration during Sonia Gandhi's visit. Now, I can hardly earn enough to fill everyone' stomach since my land is still flooded with water, just like when my husband was alive. My son has to work as a driver with a rented vehicle, but this income proves insufficient for us," says Ranjana.

Tears well up in her eyes when she talks about Sonia's visit to her house. She says that she is somehow managing to educate her younger daughter Yogita, who is in a nursing college run by Datta Meghe. The college had waived its fee for Yogita while a local social worker and chairperson of the Bhoo Vikas Bank Jayant Salve gives Rs 1,000 a month for her food bills, says Ranjana.

The Swaminathan Foundation also gives her Rs 5,000 every year for the studies of her Ranjana's two daughters and the local unit of Shiv Sena also donated a few thousand rupees. "The high profile visit of Sonia Gandhi brought in this much, but this is nowhere close to the good fortune seen by Kalawati," a villager told TOI.

RPI leader Ashok Meshram says, "Giving some money or introducing PM packages for affected families is not a solution, as can be seen in the case of Ranjana Deshmukh. Her land is still flooded and has become useless. She is forced to work as a farm labourer in other fields."

Meanwhile, the former sarpanch of the village says that the then district collector had thrown away a letter from the CM's office, which had ordered development work in Talegaon village soon after the visit of Sonia Gandhi. This letter had asked for repairs to the canal and a common road for the village.

"However, surprisingly, the administration preferred to construct a new road to the historical goddess temple (Bhavani Temple) near the village, instead of repairing a road to the temple that passes through the village, which would have been a cheaper option for the administration to link the Bhavani Temple," says Surkar.


The Times of India, 23 November, 2010, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/Sonias-visit-did-little-to-ease-farmer-widows-woes/articleshow/6972547.cms


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