Tumsar (Maharashtra), Sep 17 (IANS) A debt-ridden young farmer committed suicide along with his pregnant wife and two daughters here in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra Saturday.
The bodies of Dilip Mangalkar, his wife Yogita and daughters Monika and Ritika were fished out of their farm well in village Chulhad of Bhandara district.
Dilip, also a small-time garment shop owner, was worried about his inability to repay loans incurred by him and his deceased father from banks and a money lender, with the meager income from the shop and three-acre farm land, his mother told the police.
Dilip’s elder brothers, who too barely manage to survive on small land holdings, were apparently in no position to help him repay the bank loans.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers led by Bhandara Member of Parliament Shishupal Patle and state legislator Madhukar Kukde blockaded the Tumsar-Balaghat road on Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh border Sunday evening as no revenue officer turned up in the village after the farmer family’s suicides.
Patle has reiterated his party’s demand to include all districts of eastern Vidarbha, including Bhandara, in the Prime Minister’s farm relief package.