09, Feb 2015

Feb 09 2015 : The Times of India (Mumbai)
INELIGIBLE EVEN IN DEATH –
Chittaranjan Tembhekar
Mumbai:Families of nearly half of the farmers in Maharashtra who have committed suicide over the last four years are not eligible to get even the paltry Rs 1 lakh compensation thanks to government rules. Maharashtra, along with Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, AP, Chhattisgarh and MP, registers a high number of farmer suicides .
An RTI application by activist Jitendra Ghadge has revealed that of the total 5,698 suicides registered in rural Maharashtra since 2011, especially in Vidarbha and Marathwada regions, spouses of 2,731 victims have been found ineligible to receive government aid–either because the deceased did not have a bank loan against the cultivation planned in that season or did not own a piece of land.