Mumbai: Figures from the state’s relief and rehabilitation department reveal that while 8,074 Maharashtra farmers committed suicide between 2010 and 2014 during the Congress-led Democra-tic Front government’s tenure, 10,692 farmers ended their lives from 2015 to July 2018. In the last 12 years, 26,645 farmers committed suicide in Maharashtra. However, the families of only 13,434 were deemed eligible — out of which 13,370 have received ex-gratia.
The Devendra Fadnavis-led government had come up with several sops, including farm loan waivers, for farmers in the state to improve their condition in the last four years but it appears these measures have remained largely on paper, and the suicide figures narrate another story.
Mr Fadnavis, who is on the cusp of completing four years in the chief minister’s office, claimed in an interview with a leading daily that the highest numbers of the farmers had committed suicide in 2010 and that the figures had been hidden (by the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party government). But the information accessed by The Asian Age states that 1,742 farmers have committed suicides in 2010
In 2015, 3,266 farmers committed suicide in the state. Out of these, the families of 2,166 farmers were paid ex-gratia as they were deemed eligible. In 2016, 3,091 farmers committed suicide. Out of these, the families of 1,821 were deemed eligible for ex-gratia while 1,270 farmers’ families were deemed ineligible. In 2017, 2,918 farmers committed suicide in the state. Of these, the families of 1,638 were deemed eligible for ex-gratia while those of 988 were ineligible. Enquiries are pending in the cases of 287 farmer suicides. The family members of 1,611 farmers have been paid ex gratia.
This year, 1,417 farmers committed suicide as of July.
In 2006, during the Congress and NCP’s regime, 2,164 farmers had committed suicide. Of these, the families of 906 farmers were eligible while those of the remaining 1,258 were ineligible. Out of the 906, only 900 farmers were paid ex-gratia.
