Why do governments ignore the farm Suicide numbers of the National Crime Records Bureau, when it is the only authentic source on the subject?  Kafka might have envied the script. In Delhi, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar informed the Rajya Sabha on May 7 that there had been just six farmers' Suicides in Vidarbha since January. The same day, same time in Maharashtra, Chief Minister Ashok Chavan said that figure...

The Maharashtra government is looking out for an independent agency to evaluate the implementation of the Prime Minister’s relief package for six Suicide-prone districts of Vidarbha. The government move comes after it approached the Centre for a second PM’s relief package of Rs 7,200 crore, wherein the state has been asked to get the implementation of the Rs 3,750-crore first package reviewed by a third party. The Prime Minister had...

The body of a business management student, head severed and legs chopped off, was dug out from a paddy field in Muzaffarnagar yesterday in another suspected “honour killing” amid fears that his missing girlfriend might have been murdered too. Police today arrested the girl’s father and brother, though both had got themselves admitted to a nursing home. Last month, a three-month pregnant Delhi-based journalist, whose family didn’t approve of her relationship with...

Suicide notes in Vidarbha are at times addressed to the Prime Minister, the desperate last cries of voices that went unheeded when alive. Seeking authenticity for his letter to the Prime Minister and the President, Ramachandra Raut composed it with care on Rs.100 non-judicial stamp paper. Then he added a few more addressees, including his village sarpanch and the police, in the hope that it got home someplace. Then he...

The Krushak Morcha of the BJP today held the Government responsible for the Suicide of 68 farmers in the State. Passing several resolutions in the first State executive committee meeting here, the farmers wing of the party attributed the Suicide cases to the faulty agricultural policies of both the State and Central governments. Alleging that farmers have been committing Suicide due to crop loss and increasing loan burden, the resolution said that...