By IANS,
Nagpur : Over 2,000 farmers and farm widows met with a parliamentary panel that visited the agrarian crisis-hit Vidarbha region and spoke about their problems. The panel promised to bring up the issue in parliament, an activist said here Friday.
A team of 18 members, headed by Basudeb Acharia of the Communist Party of India-Marxist visited Maregaon town of Yavatmal district of Vidarbha Friday to review the plight of farmers in the region.
Acharia and the committee members interacted with farmers and heard their grievances and assured them of bringing up the matter in the budget session of parliament.
“In a touching address to over 2,000 farmers and 100 farm widows, Acharia admitted that the farmers’ suicide in the region is a national shame. Acharia said that after 66 years of Independence if farmers are still committing suicide, something is definitely wrong with the system,” said Kishor Tiwari, president of Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS), an activist group working for cotton farmers’ rights in Vidarbha.
A farm widow, Aparna Malikar, who also appeared on television show “Kaun Banega Crorepati”, lashed out at the government and asked for increase in the minimum support price of cotton and paddy in order to reduce farmer suicides.