More than 2,000 farmer suicides in 2 years in Marathwada

Farmer suicides in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra have crossed a shocking 2,000 mark in less than two years. The numbers stood at 1,130 in 2015 before breaching the 2,000 mark in 2016.

Officials from the Aurangabad Divisional Commissionerate, which tracks farmer suicides in eight districts of Marathwada, said that 1,003 farmers committed suicide from January 1 to December 12 this year, the Indian Express reported.

More than 200 suicides over the last 16 months were recorded in Osmanabad — a district which was selected as the 'zero suicide district' in August 2015 by the state government.

The highest number of farmer suicides, for the second consecutive year, was recorded in Beed district where the number stood at 214. According to officials in Beed, the number is a lot less compared to last year's figures which had crossed 300 by the end of December.

"Investigations have revealed that there are other causes like domestic issues for farmer suicides. But whatever may be the cause, every suicide of a farmer is worrisome for us. We are making efforts to bring down the suicide rate. Compared to 2015, the suicides this year in Beed are certainly down by more than 30 per cent," Beed District Collector Naval Kishore Ram told the IE.

Nanded district comes second after Beed with 170 farmer suicides, followed by Osmanabad with 153, Aurangabad with 145 and Latur with 108 farmer suicides. There were less than 100 farmer suicides in the other districts of Marathwada.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had said in April that the government had planned several measures to reduce the number of farmer suicides in the country and that it would take time for the results to reflect. 

But the Congress had slammed the state government with former CM Prithviraj Chavan accusing Fadnavis of only planning and not executing those plans. "Compared to our tenure, the Fadnavis rule has seen maximum farmer suicides, which clearly shows failure on part of the government. They only talk, but do little on the ground," Chavan had said.