Mumbai: A 36-year-old Kolhapur-based farmer, who has been demanding a farm loan waiver, rode into the city on a two-wheeler on Sunday bearing the last remains (asthi kalash) of more than 25 of his counterparts who allegedly committed suicide due to crop failure and debts in the last two months. He also had with him an effigy of a dead body of a farmer with a noose around its neck.
The farmer, Vijay Jadhav, collected the last remains by visiting the families of deceased farmers across 12 districts of the state, including Kolhapur, Nagpur, Satara and Sangli, over the past two months.
It was the death of his cousin, a Sangli-based farmer who hanged himself six months ago due to unpaid loans, which goaded Jadhav to do something about farmers’ suicides. “My niece had slept beside my cousin, clutching his hand as she suspected he might commit suicide. Despite this, he went ahead to kill himself, which shook me up when I learnt about it,” Mr Jadhav told The Asian Age. Mr Jadhav said his interaction with deceased farmers’ families revealed that most of them had owed money to non-banking financial institutions and were tired of their alleged “harassment for non-payment of the loans.”
Mr Jadhav said, “My demand is very simple. The CM should come and pay tribute to the kalash and ensure the loans of farmers are waived off.” He added, “We don’t want loans to be waived off temporarily but need permanent relief. When the CM was in the Opposition he had given farmers many assurances, but they are still committing suicide.” Mr Jadhav also lamented, “ The CM does not have respect for farmers who have laid down their lives… we do not need bank officials coming into our houses. We are farmers not criminals.”
State home minister Ranjit Patil, Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant and independent MLA Bacchu Kadu met Mr Jadhav, on Sunday.
