Parliament panel members visit Bhamb (Raja) -- The Hitavada Impact

Published in 'The Hitavada' on March 3, 2012

Parlt panel members visit Bhamb (Raja),
express angst over farmers’ condition 

■ By Kartik Lokhande
BHAMB (RAJA), Mar 2: “THIS is injustice. Gross injustice heaped on farmers.” This is how a
member of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture said after hearing the plight of farmers at village Bhamb (Raja) in Yavatmal district on Friday.
Just a day back, the panel had decided not to visit the village, which had left farmers disappointed.
‘The Hitavada’ highlighted the disappointment, taking cognisance of which two members of the panel made it a point to visit Bhamb (Raja). The officials accompanying the committee tried to dissuade the panel members from visiting the village.
When Babanrao Gawande and Shridhar Adey from the village made a passionate appeal to the committee members to visit Bhamb (Raja) during a meeting at Maregaon (Son), even the committee chairperson Basudeb Acharia seemed reluctant. However, as farmers became aggressive, two of the members — SatyavratChaturvedi and Upendra Kushwaha — decided
to pay the visit to Bhamb (Raja) even as other members of the panel left for Nagpur from Maregaon (Son).
After giving a patient hearing to villagers, farmers, and their widows, members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture were so agitated that Chaturvedi could not resist from expressing his angst, “We have taken a serious note of your problems and the same will be reflected in our report to the Parlt. Govt officials paint before us a rosy picture of implementation of various schemes, but ground reality is different. Farmers are left to fend for themselves.” 

A host of farmers including Babanrao Gawande, Gajanan Dumale, Somsingh Rathod, Raibhan Lanjewar, Maroti Lanjewar, and widows of farmers who committed suicide namely Saraswati Bhagwan Adey and Kamlabai Kunjaram Pohankar opened up their hearts before the committee. And, what came out shocked the panel members. They were stunned when almost all the farmers said in unison that they had to pay bribe to bank officials to get loan sanctioned. They were moved deeply when villagers told that benefits like interest-free loans, loan waiver, cattle distribution, unremunerative prices, adverse impact on input cost caused by Bt Cotton, and all other issues haunting them. 

Disturbed, Chaturvedi and Kushwaha expressed deep pain and anger over bank officials’ bribe-seeking nature and non-percolation of benefits of relief packages announced by the PM and State
Government. “The village has seen 14 farmers’ suicides and aid has been given only in four cases. This is surprising! Another surprising and shocking thing is that despite crores of rupees being sent by the Central Government, benefits do not appear to be reaching farmers. There are a lot many announcements from the Government’s side, but there is no implementation on ground. Why?” Chaturvedi asked the officials present on the occasion. Obviously, none of the officials rose to offer any answer.

Gram Panchayat passes resolution against Bt Cotton
BHAMB (Raja) probably is the first Gram Panchayat from cotton belt to have resolved against Bt Cotton. On March 1, 2012, the Gram Panchayat passed an unanimous resolution stating that Bt Cotton was complicating problems of farmers. 

Based on the resolution signed by Sarpanch Gokarna Karpate and Secretary A M Hande, the villagers submitted a memorandum to Parliamentary panel members. Through the memorandum, the villagers urged the Government to ban Bt Cotton seeds. “Owing to Bt seeds, input costs have spiralled to a new high and all the cotton growers from the village have huge debt burden. As many
find continuing to grow cotton unremunerative, they have stopped tilling their land and have started working as labourers in nearby cities. Instead of aggressively pushing for Bt Cotton, the Government must offer proper guidance for organic farming and provide 50 per cent subsidy to farmers,” stated the memorandum.
The villagers also demanded removal of hurdles in way of clearing Borda nullah project so that farm land in the village got irrigation benefits. Besides, Bechkheda lake must be desilted by the Government machinery. A member from the families of farmers who have committed suicides must get a Government job, they demanded. 

Vidarbha needs fresh PM’s package of Rs 7,500 cr: GoelPRINCIPAL Secretary (Agriculture) Dr Sudhir Kumar Goel told reporters after the meeting that Vidarbha needed Rs 13,000 crore package for creation of irrigation facilities. Besides, a fresh Prime Minister’s relief package of Rs 7,500 crore was needed for the region. “Both the issues were discussed in the meeting,” he said.
Regarding problems in supply of fertilisers on time, Goel blamed Railways for not making available adequate number of rakes. “Hence, we proposed before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture to ask Railways to make available rakes,” he said. Members of
Parliamentary committee also directed officers of nationalized banks to disburse more loan for agriculture.