14 farmers end life in 3 days

NAGPUR: It seems finance minister P Chidambaram's loan-waiver Union budget has failed to stem the suicides in Vidarbha. As many as 14 farmers of the agrarian crisis-hit region have committed suicide in the past three days, taking the toll to 61 after the Rs-60,000 crore farm loan waiver was announced.

Shrikrishna Kalamb, a 48-year-old farmer from Babhulgaon in Akola district, left behind five daughters.
Family sources said Kalamb did not qualify for the loan waiver because of the two-hectare ceiling in the Central government's package. He had also taken loans from a cooperative society and an acquaintance, which worried him no end.

A varhadi (folk) poet Kalamb ended his life by hanging himself to death at his sister's house at Pundaliknagar near Murtijapur tehsil in Akola district. In a three-stanza Marathi varhadi poem, he compared the unseasonal rains to his untimely death, the suicide note said, which has been seized by the police.

Another farmer, Sudhakar Pote of Selu-Murpad in Wardha district, who hanged himself on Monday, owned 16 acres and wasn't eligible too for the loan waiver.

However, two others, Vijay Akre of Jamtha village and Shankar Tayde of Hingna-Balapur village (both in Akola district) ended their life on Sunday even though they were eligible for the relief.

Ten more farmer suicides were reported from different parts of Vidarbha on Sunday and Monday.