Even as the Maharashtra government claimed in the Bombay high court that only 1,000 farmers had committed suicide from 2013-2015, documents revealed that the actual number of suicides just for the year 2015 was 3,228. Of the 3,228 farmers that committed suicide in 2015, 1,841 were eligible for compensation. The Congress claimed that the BJP government was misguiding the court and hiding actual figures.
As per authentic figures collected from the Relief and Rehabilitation (R&R) Ministry, the highest number of sucides (1,179) were from the Amravati division followed by 1,130 farmer suicides in the Aurangabad division.
A senior official from the R&R Department, on condition of anonymity, said, “Though there are a large number of farmers who committed suicide, the number of farmers eligible for compensation from the state is less.”
To be eligible for compensation from the government, the person should be a farmer and have a debt to repay either a bank or private moneylender.
Minister for Relief and Rehabilitation, Eknath Khadse, did not respond to our calls. Meanwhile, MPCC President, Ashok Chavan, alleged that the state government is hiding actual figures of farmers’ suicides. “The state government is not only hiding facts but they are also misguiding the court,” said Mr Chavan.
He added that Congress would take a decision within a couple of weeks in the matter that is being heard by the court. “We will also take this issue to the state legislature and will intervene in the court case,” he said. He added that it is the responsibility of the state government to implement schemes and reduce the number of suicides.
The high court had taken suo moto cognisance of a news report which said that as many as 32 farmers from Marathwada region had committed suicide in the first week of September 2015, bringing the total suicide toll in the region to 660 in 2015.
