The Hindu : National : Tension at hospital

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 24, 2004

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National

Tension at hospital

By Our Special Correspondent

NARKHED (NAGPUR DISTRICT), JULY 23. Thousands of farmers today laid siege to the taluka hospital, where bodies of two of the five farmers who had committed suicide had been brought for post mortem. They said they would accept the bodies only if the Government promised ex-gratia payment to the affected families and declared the Narkheda taluka drought-affected.

The farmers were agitated because the Maharashtra Government had not put their taluka on the list of those witnessing a `scarcity-like situation.'

The situation eased after the Sub-Divisional Officer, Arun Gavande accepted their memorandum which also demanded that their outstanding power bills and farm loans be written off and fresh loans sanctioned at lower interest. Other demands were that the State Government give aid in cash and not in kind, like seeds and fertilizers and start relief employment for the farmers and farm labourers under the Employment Guarantee Scheme.

The bodies, including that of woman farmer, Jijabai Revatkar, were later accepted by the family members for last rites. Mr. Gavande promised to forward a proposal to the Collector for ex-gratia payment.

Ms. Revatkar, a 1951 matriculate, had taken over farming from her disinterested husband, Bhamrao and was cultivating their small holding. She got her sons educated with the farm income. But the drought did the Revatkar family in.

Two years ago, their domestic power connection was cut because they had no money to pay the power bill, last March the supply to the farm was also snapped as the outstanding bills grew to Rs. 14,000 and the farm well turned dry.

The last straw for Ms. Revatkar was when the 400 orange trees on her land wilted for want of regular water last summer and three consecutive sowings failed this monsoon as it hardly rained. She did not know how to repay the loan of Rs. 75000 she took from a private money lender and also the money she owed the cooperative bank.

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