On a day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a rally in Wardha, the Congress asked him what steps he has taken to stop farmer suicides and address the demands of Adivasis regarding the Forest Rights Act.
On the issue of farmer suicides, party General Secretary Jairam Ramesh said, “An average of seven farmers end their lives every day in Maharashtra,” adding that “This heart-wrenching figure has been provided by the Ministry of Relief and Rehabilitation of the state.” He noted that 2,366 farmers committed suicide between January and October last year, and the reasons are clear.
The Congress leader said natural calamities, crop failure and debt were driving the farmers to take the extreme step. “Last year 60% districts of Maharashtra faced drought conditions, but there was no help from the government. Farmers were given loan waiver facilities when crops were destroyed by unseasonal rains in more than half of the state, but due to a glitch in the software, 6.56 lakh farmers were deprived of this assistance.”
On the issue of the Forest Rights Act (FRA), he termed it a “revolutionary” step taken by the Congress government in 2006. “The Act gave tribal and other forest-dwelling communities legal rights to manage forests in their own areas and to derive economic benefits from their produce.” However, Ramesh accused the BJP government of obstructing the implementation of FRA, depriving lakhs of tribals of its benefits.
He said, “Of the total 4,01,046 individual claims filed in Maharashtra, only 52% have been approved. Only 23.5% (11,769 sq km) of the land distributed under it is eligible for proprietary community rights out of 50,045 sq km.”
Finally, he noted that Wardha is a city where Mahatma Gandhi once lived, and asked Modi to come clean on who he stands with when it comes to Gandhi and Godse.
