More than 24 hours after a distressed farmer committed suicide in Yavatmal district in Vidarbha region, his family members on Wednesday refused to accept his body from the Vasantrao Naik Medical College and Hospital, saying that they would not do so unless and until Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis visited them.
On Thursday, chief minister Fadnavis is meeting the family members of 50-year-old farmer from Rajurwadi village in Yavatmal district Shankar Bhaurao Chayare who had on Tuesday ended his life by consuming poison. In a suicide note recovered by the police from his body, Chayare held the Narendra Modi government responsible for his death and sought help financial assistance from the Centre to his family.
On Wednesday, Chayare’s family members rejected a compensation of Rs.100,000 offered to them on behalf of the Maharashtra government by Vasantrao Naik Sheti Swavalamban (VNSM) Mission Chairman Kishore Tiwari.
“Having lost their sole breadwinner, Chayre’s family members are shattered. They have demanded that the chief minister must visit them, understand the plight of the agrarian cruis-hit farmers in the district, before they accepted Chayare’s body,” Tiwari said.
Tiwari quoted Chayare’s wife as saying: “How can we survive with a financial assistance just Rs 100,000 IJ The Maharashtra government should give us at least Rs.1 crore. I have to educate my four children, get them married, run the farms, etc”.
Chayare is survived by wife Alka (47), daughters Jaishri (21), Bhagyashri (19) and Dhanashri (17), and son Aakash (15). Reports reaching the state headquarters from Yavatmal had said that Chayare went to his farmland on Tuesday morning and attempted to hang himself from a tree. However, when the rope snapped, Chayare consumed poison and fell unconscious, even as some workers rushed him to a local hospital in a serious condition. He was declared dead before he was taken to the district medical hospital at Yavatmal.