Travelling through areas where economic policies have made a huge impact, both positive and negative, CNN-IBN's Budget Yatra moves to Yavatmal in Maharashtra. This year alone, within just two months, over 22 farmers have committed suicide following a dismal harvest. ...
09:07 AM, Feb 14, 2013
A 35-year-old farmer allegedly committed suicide fearing that he may lose his land as he was unable to repay a bank loan, police said on Friday. Body of Mahendra Singh was found hanging from the ceiling of his room by his wife on Thursday in Pichaura village of Kanpur (Rural) district, police said. ...
08:09 AM, Dec 21, 2012
New Delhi: A Parliamentary panel ordered a probe into the BT Brinjal on Thursday after a parliamentary committee report said that adequate tests were not carried out and that the committee approving its use was under tremendous pressure from a minister to approve the BT Brinjal. The report quoted Dr PM Bhargava, the Supreme Court nominee on the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) as saying that a "minister" was putting...
03:55 PM, Aug 09, 2012
Amreli: Gujarat is facing a drought-like crisis and making things worse, there's been a farmer suicide in Amreli. Refusing to accept the Agriculture Minister's assurance that there's no spectre of drought, the Narendra Modi government has now drawn up a contingency plan for 75 talukas. After a brief spell of rain, farmer Babubhai had taken a loan to sow seeds in his fields. But then came the dry spell, and...
08:28 AM, Jul 17, 2012
Burdwan: Burdwan may be the Rice Bowl of Bengal. However, its farmers are committing suicide. Here, rice is not a source of prosperity but of anguish. Spiralling debt has reportedly driven 16 farmers here to commit suicide in the past one year. Fifty-four-year-old Amiya Saha was one such farmer. The memories haunt his wife, but what hurts more is the continued government denials that something is amiss here. Says Jayanta...
04:07 PM, Jun 24, 2012
Chandigarh: In a shocker from Punjab and Haryana, official indifference has led to more grain troubles. Despite a bumper harvests in both states, tonnes of wheat are rotting in the open. In Chandigarh, the local traders were left with nothing after majority of the wheat was procured by six government procuring agencies. The Food Corporation has already warned the Centre to take corrective measures to check the rotting. Meanwhile, adding...
10:24 AM, May 04, 2012
Jhansi/Mahoba: Two farmers, who according to their families were in huge debt, committed suicide in Jhansi and Mahoba areas of Bundelkhand in Uttar Pradesh. In the first case, farmer Rajkumar owed the bank Rs 80000. It was a loan that his father had taken. The worries of Rajkumar increased when his crops were destroyed due to a bad monsoon. In the second case, the victim, Khemchand, had to pay of...
10:00 AM, May 02, 2012
Malda: Days after blaming the West Bengal government for farmer suicides in the state, Congress said on Monday it did not want to bring disrepute to the ruling Trinamool Congress. "Our intention is not to defame them. We will be very happy if the government works properly," West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee president Pradip Bhattacharya told reporters in Malda. Relations between the two allies have soured in the last few...
12:11 AM, Jan 31, 2012
Yavatmal: Four cotton growers here committed suicide in the last three days as the local administration stopping relief aid to crisis-ridden farmers because of the code of conduct in place for coming local bodies elections, a local organisation fighting for farmers' cause alleged on Saturday. "All the officials are busy because of the ensuing local body election and the State Election Commission has stopped relief aids for farmers which has...
10:59 PM, Jan 28, 2012
New Delhi: Farmer suicides in Vidarbha have been occurring since the last 15 years but they only came to light around 2005. Post that the government announced several schemes and packages for the cotton farmers, including the much hyped Prime Minister's package. But Vidarbha still has just 4 per cent irrigated land, major loadshedding which has caused the per acre production of Vidarbha to be just 2 quintals of cotton...
08:58 PM, Nov 30, 2011
Bundelkhand: More than 500 debt ridden farmers have committed suicide in the last 5 months Bundelkhand despite a Rs 7000 crore special package from the Centre. The story has now become a part of Bundelkhand's folklore with eight years of drought, starvation and debt, due to which there have been 2945 farmer suicides in the last 10 years and 519 farmer suicides in the last five months alone. Veerpal Rajput,...
08:40 AM, Jul 15, 2011
Rajdeep Sardesai speaks to Vilasrao Deshmukh over his elevation in the Union Cabinet. ...
12:21 AM, Jan 21, 2011
Mumbai: Just last month Vilasrao Deshmukh was pulled up by the Supreme Court for shielding private moneylenders accused of land grab in Vidarbha. While Deshmukh has defended the portfolio change, farmers and the opposition are seeing red. Vidarbha farmer Sarangdhar Singh Chavan is one of those farmers who are still waiting for justice after exploitation at the hands of moneylenders. In December, the Supreme Court held former Maharashtra chief minister...
10:28 PM, Jan 20, 2011
New Delhi: Some alarming revelations have surfaced from a new study. A record 2.5 lakh farmers have committed suicide in India over the last 13 years. Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar's home state Maharashtra tops the list. It has the worst record for the 10th consecutive year. According to The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, more than 2,16, 000 farmers have committed suicide since 1997. P Sainath, Rural Affairs editor...
08:06 AM, Jan 18, 2011
Buldhana (Vidarbha): The issue of debt traps of Maharshtra came into focus after the Supreme Court raised questions on union minister Vilasrao Deshmukh's alleged links to money lenders who harasses farmers. But has the court order brought any relief for farmers who are struck by difficult times and exploited by money lenders? There was yet another suicide in Vidarbha and farmers rallied around the family that has yet again lost...
12:08 AM, Dec 29, 2010
Buldhana, Maharashtra: A week after the Supreme Court pulled up former Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh for shielding money lenders, yet another debt ridden farmer in Vidharbha committed suicide. The supreme courts backing has given a new hope to 5500 farmers in the area who are still struggling under debts taken from well connected private moneylenders. A Vidharbha farmer Harishchandra Gaikwad killed himself by consuming poison. He blamed a moneylender...
12:20 PM, Dec 27, 2010
New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday said the issue of alleged suicides by farmers hit by natural calamities in Andhra Pradesh would be looked into. The assurance was given by the Prime Minister to a delegation of seven opposition parties which met him to draw his attention to the plight of farmers in the southern state, CPI leader AB Bardhan told the reporters after the meeting. The delegation...
06:03 PM, Dec 22, 2010
Nagpur: A farmer's advocacy group in Vidarbha has objected to the content of the just-released Hindi film
Peepli Live, saying it is a wrong representation of the misery of the family members of farmers who committed suicide. "The farmers in any region of India commit suicide due to the wrong policies of the government, not because family members can live off the compensation they would get," Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti...
07:04 PM, Aug 14, 2010
The actor has been calling up his Bollywood friends to aid the cause ...
03:13 PM, Aug 10, 2010
The international jury was all praise for the maiden attempt ...
07:10 PM, Aug 03, 2010
