1,555 farmer suicides, drought looms large; is govt aware of severity of situation: Wadettiwar

Mumbai, September 21

A total of 1,555 farmers took their lives till July 31 this year in Maharashtra where the threat of drought looms large, claimed Leader of Opposition in Assembly Vijay Wadettiwar on Thursday, wondering if the government was aware of the severity of the situation.

He said 13 districts of the state have received below-average rainfall in the last one-and-a-half months.

The Congress leader claimed that several reports have stated that farmer suicides in the state are on the rise because of the drought-like conditions and apathy of the Eknath Shinde government.

Taking to X, the Congress leader said the Amravati division reported the highest number of farmer suicides at 637 in the first seven months of this year.

While 183 farmers took their own lives in Amravati district between January and July 31, the figure is 173 in Buldhana, 149 in Yavatmal, 94 in Akola and 38 in Washim, he said.

Wadettiwar said the Aurangabad division has seen 584 farmer suicides. While Nashik division saw 174 such deaths, Nagpur and Pune divisions reported 144 and 16 farmer suicides, he said.

There were no farmer suicides in Konkan division and the districts of Pune and Kolhapur, he said.

At 233, Wadettiwar claimed, June reported the maximum number of farmer suicides in the given period. The number stood at 226 in January, February (192), March (226), April (225), May (224) and July (229), he claimed.

“Farmers are dying every day. When will the government declare drought,” he asked.

He said 13 districts have received below-average rainfall in the last one and a half months.

“How are we concerned? We just need to give assurances and walk away. This is the agenda of this government,” he said.

Wadettiwar shared what he claimed rainfall data of districts that have received scanty showers so far this monsoon.

He said Sangli has got 45 per cent less rainfall than average.

He claimed it is 19 per cent less in Nanded, 35 per cent less in Solapur, 40 per cent less in Satara, 27 per cent less in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (earlier Aurangabad), Jalna (43), Beed (43), Dharashiv, earlier Osmanabad (32), Parbhani (31), Amravati (30), Washim (22) and Akola (29).