Parliamentary panel to visit Vidarbha on March 2

A parliamentary panel led by senior CPM leader Basudeo Acharya will visit Yavatmal and nearby areas in Vidarbha on March 2 to find out reasons behind continuing farmers' suicides in the region.

The 37-member Parliamentatry Standing Committee, headed by Acharya, will go to Pandharkawda and visit a couple of villages to find out why suicides by farmers continue unabated despite measures taken by the government to help the farmers.

This is for the first time that such a large team of parliamentarians would be visiting the Vidarbha region which has recorded hundreds of suicides by farmers.

Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti which has taken up the cause of the cotton growers here will be meeting the Standing Committee members at Pandharkawda, Samiti President Kishore Tiwari said today. The panel members will be taken to nearby villages of Bhamraja and Maregon to study the ground realities, he said.

"Several such studies have been undertaken in the past. We only hope that the fresh attempt being made by the government will succeed in identifying the problems and ways to address them," said Tiwari.