When he drank poison on January 11, farmer Hargovind Harne’s run-down hut was bursting with freshly harvested paddy. Yet he was neck-deep in debt. Even the bottle of pesticide that he used to take his own life had been bought on credit, as the bill shows. His large stock of grain wasn’t the only puzzle in the 47-year-old’s suicide. Vidarbha is infamous for continuing suicides by cotton farmers but Harne grew food,...
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A Sezpool Of Factors by Smruti Koppikar
Roadblocks Ahead * The MIDC has been winding up its plans to set up SEZs * As many as 28 SEZ proposals, in the government and private sector, were withdrawn or projects denotified in the last six months * Farmer protests, land acquisition problems, economic downturn and non-feasible tax regimes are cited as reasons for developers backing out. CM Prithviraj Chavan too exercises great caution. *** Mandated to create industrial opportunities in...
More »On budget eve, farmers hang effigies of Mukherjee, Pawar by TO Abraham
On the eve of the Union Budget on Sunday, thousands of farmers and hundreds of farm widows staged a strong protest at Pandharkawda in Yavatmal district by hanging effigies of union finance minister of finance Pranab Mukherjee and agriculture minister Sharad Pawar. The protesters wanted to draw attention of the government towards its 'anti-cotton farmer policies.' They demanded lifting of ban on cotton export, a bailout package for dying cotton...
More »Badwa committee uncovers PDS racket in Yavatmal
With the arrest of two drivers of trucks transporting wheat and other food grains meant for the Public Distribution System (PDS) by the Wadgaon Road police on Sunday night, the unabated PDS food grain pilferage racket stands exposed once again. According to Wadgaon Road police station officer (PSO) Baijnath Latpatte, drivers Firoz Shah Kasam (40) and Rafique Shah Kasam (45), both residents of Jafar Nagar, Yavatmal, were arrested after registering...
More »Sack Vilasrao Deshmukh, say agitating Vidarbha farmers
More than 2,000 farmers and farm widows on Tuesday participated in a day-long hunger-strike in Vidarbha to demand the sacking of union Rural Development Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, an activist said. In the agitation called by the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS), farmers in Pandharkawada village of Yavatmal district, some 150 km south of here, also said that they would go on an indefinite hunger-strike to press for their demand. "The Supreme Court...
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