Agri crisis in Maharashtra sees farmers turning to BRS for help

The couple is survived by two children, with pictures of the two children, one just six months old, trying to wake their lifeless parents, going viral in the State.

Hyderabad: A young farmer couple died, allegedly in a suicide pact, at Ranjangaon village in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra two days ago. The incident is snowballing into a major issue grabbing State-wide attention.

Though farmer suicides are not a new phenomenon in Maharashtra, the circumstances that forced Raju Damodar Khandagale, 24, and Archana Raju Khandagale, 21, to resort to the extreme step has triggered public uproar.

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The farmer couple is learned to have been pushed into deep financial crisis after heavy rains caused losses of crop in two and a half acres of land owned by the family and on another 11 acres taken on lease. Money-lenders then allegedly mounted pressure on the family after knowing about the crop loss, and with the State government not reaching out to them with any sort of compensation, the situation led to their tragic end.

The couple is survived by two children, with pictures of the two children, one just six months old, trying to wake their lifeless parents, going viral in the State.

With the Maharashtra government yet to step in, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi Maharashtra unit has taken up the issue, with BRS Kisan Cell president Manik Kadam being the first to reach the village with his team and vowing to take up the incident with the administration. The BRS State unit will also take up the issue of helping the two orphaned children with party president and Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, who is scheduled to visit Kolhapur on Tuesday.

The need of the hour is strategic measures to boost the morale of farmers in the State, Kadam said, pointing out that senior IAS officer Sunil Kendrekar, former Divisional Commissioner of Aurangabad, had strongly advocated the Telangana model of approach to the farm sector in Maharashtra. He had called for monetary assistance to farmers on the lines of the Rythu Bandhu programme in Telangana.

However, the State government did not heed his pleas and Kendrekar quit service earlier this month, with his application for voluntary retirement being accepted. Many retired bureaucrats with a pro-farmer approach are coming forward to champion the cause of the farmers in Maharashtra in a big way, Kadam said, adding that the BRS would join the frontlines of the fight for the farmers’ cause in the State. Several farmers were already approaching the party’s local leaders for help.

“Over one lakh such famers are caught in a web of misery in the Vidarbha pocket. Unless their issues are addressed, more such deaths will soon become a reality,” the Kisan Cell leader said.

Maharashtra has been grappling with farmers suicides for decades, with eight farmers ending their lives every day in the State on an average. No government has come out with a concrete plan to address the issue, with the BRS call for replication of the Telangana model in Maharashtra along with Rythu Bandhu and Rythu Bima – fast gaining traction among farmers in the neighbouring State, Kadam added.