Farm widow ends life, 100 days after meeting Maharashtra CM

Barely 100 days after meeting Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, a farm widow from Pipmpributi village here ended her life on Friday, a watchdog NGO said.

Fadnavis had called on and consoled the victim, Shanta Tajane -- whose husband Prahlad Tajane had committed suicide four years ago -- while on a tour of the district on March 3 this year.

"At the meeting, she had demanded a well, a motor pump and electric connection to continue tending her farm which was lying abandoned after her husband's suicide. However, despite Fadnavis' assurances, there was no progress in the matter and she took the extreme step today," Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti President Kishore Tiwari told IANS.

He added that after Prahlad Tajane's death four years ago, the government had given an aid of Rs.100,000, of which Rs.30,000 was disbursed as interim relief and the balance was kept in a joint bank account with the state government.

Tiwari said Shanta Tajane's problems were compounded as she was unable to withdraw the balance amount (Rs.70,000) from the bank account, as nobody guided her on the formalities to be completed at the collector's level.

Out of sheer frustration, she ended her life and her last rites were completed in the village on Friday afternoon.

The farm widow's suicide came a day after a former director of a local cooperative credit society Madhav Gole Patil in Ghoddhara village committed suicide by jumping into a well.

"Patil, who was a cotton farmer and a social activist, left a suicide note in which he urged the government to give farm loans waiver, higher minimum support price to agriculture produce and disbursement of the relief aid declared in October 2014," Tiwari said.

This year, since January 1, the number of farmers suicides has touched around 1,090, though state government officials question whether all are related to the agrarian crises.