PM's multi-crore package for Vidarbha fails to impress
Ujwala Velekar belongs to a family of farmers from Waiphad village in Wardha district, but she vows not to marry one. And she conveyed her decision not to her parents, but Prime Minister Manmohan Singh when he was visiting her village as part of a two-day tour from June 30 to learn the plight of farmers in Vidarbha. Cotton, a cash crop, has turned into a killer crop: more than 600 farmers have committed suicide in 2006 alone.
"We could not repay our loans even when cotton fetched Rs 2,500 per quintal, so how can we repay it when it is earning us just Rs 1,700," Dharmapal Jarunde of Dorli, the village which farmers decided to put up for sale, told Manmohan. "You should at least ensure that farmers get Rs 2,700 per quintal that the rulers promised during the election campaign."
Manmohan announced a Rs 3,700-crore package for the six districts of Vidarbha: Akola, Buldana, Yavatmal, Amravati, Wardha and Washim. There is rescheduling of farm credit of Rs 1,300 crore, waiver on accumulated interest over farmers' loans worth Rs 712 crore, Rs 2,117 crore for irrigation projects over three to five years, Rs 1,275 crore in fresh loans and Rs 50 lakh to each of the districts to help farmers. The implementation of the package will be monitored by the Prime Minister's Office. An expert group will submit a report to the Prime Minister on the issue of rural indebtedness in three months.
Those fighting for farmers' causes, however, are far from pleased with the package. Dr Ajay Dandekar, who headed a committee that submitted a report on farmers' suicides, calls the package an "eyewash". "Pricing of cotton is the main concern of cotton growers, but there is no word in the package about matching the cost of production incurred by farmers," said Dandekar. "Dr M.S. Swaminathan's report recommended raising import duty on cotton. In a letter to the Prime Minister we had demanded that it should be raised to 60 per cent. The Prime Minister's silence implies the influence of the textile lobby. The Prime Minister appears to be under pressure from the World Bank and the IMF, and perhaps does not want to displease the United States and its cotton grower lobby which has dumped cotton in India in the last five years."
Prakash Pohore, founder-editor of Deshonnati, a regional daily that has campaigned on the issue for the last five years, felt that the package lacks instant aid to farmers. "He has waived interest, but farmers were just unable to pay, so this waiver is of no use," said Pohore. "He should have waived loans. He should have announced compensation to the families of farmers who committed suicide. At present, the state government tries its best to prove that the suicides are not related to debt and crop failure."
Suicides are, apparently, also prompted by harassment from moneylenders and Pohore said that no measure is taken to tackle this. According to him, one of the biggest moneylenders of the region is Dilip Sananda, a Congress MLA from Khamgaon in Buldana. "Sananda's family has 4,200 acres. There have been complaints against him by farmers but Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh is protecting him," alleged Pohore.
Shetkari Sanghatana (farmers' organisation) leader Vijay Jawandhia said that irrigation money will go into the pockets of contractors and funds for seeds and drip irrigation will go to companies. "Even if we assume that irrigation projects will be completed in time, 80 per cent of land will remain unirrigated," he said. "We had asked for Rs 1,000 per acre subsidy on jowar cultivation so that the crop can been used as fodder, but there was no word about it. When we cannot feed our animals, how can they become a secondary source of income for farmers. The only positive outcome of this visit is that Manmohan Singh has become aware of the ground reality in Vidarbha."
Within hours of Manmohan's departure on July 1, Shrirang Kalbande, who cultivated his family-owned two acres at Nimbhora in Amravati district, ended his life. Two more suicides took place the following day in Akola. It seems that farmers are anything but pleased with Manmohan's package.