Some alarming revelations have surfaced from a new study. A record 2.5 lakh farmers have committed suicide in India over the last 13 years. Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar's home state Maharashtra tops the list. It has the worst record for the 10th consecutive year. According to The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, more than 2,16, 000 farmers have committed suicide since 1997. P Sainath, Rural Affairs editor for ‘The Hindu’,...

A day after being sworn in, Rural Development Minister Vilasrao Deskmukh Thursday said the Supreme Court's observation on his links with moneylenders who harass farmers was an "isolated incident". He also said there was no link between his new portfolio and farmer suicides in Maharashtra. "One isolated incident cannot be connected with other things," Deshmukh told reporters after taking charge. The court last month had raised questions on the former Maharashtra...

One of the significant changes in the Cabinet reshuffle on Wednesday was the shifting of Vilasrao Deshmukh from Heavy Industries to Rural Development and Panchyati Raj. The move is being seen as ironic by many as it comes just a month after he was pulled up by the Supreme Court for stopping police action on a complaint by farmers against a money lender, who is the father of a Congress legislator,...

Every fifth person who killed himself in Maharashtra in 2009 was a farmer, recent suicide data says, nailing the state for most Farm suicides for the tenth year in a row. Nationwide, 17,368 farmers killed themselves in 2009, 7% more than the count in 2008. The data is part of National Crime Records Bureau`s annual report of deaths and suicides across the country. Overall, India reported 418 accidental deaths a day...

The farmers in Madhya Pradesh are feeling devastated and over a half-a-dozen of them have even committed suicide in a short span of time in different parts of the state.   In the last one month, farmers have committed suicide in villages across Bhopal, Sehore, Chhindwara, Damoh, and Sagar districts. The farmers’ plight had surfaced in a big way when thousands of farmers under the banner of Bharatiya Kisan Sangh had converged...