Cong workers pay off loans of 9 farmers who killed selves

The Congress workers have adopted the households of nine debt-ridden Vidarbha farmers, who had committed suicide, and paid off their loans after party vice-president Rahul Gandhi visited them in April during his “padyatra” over the farm distress issue. The steps come in the backdrop of repeated criticism in the past that no follow-up action is taken after Rahul Gandhi visits homes of the disadvantaged and the poor and makes assurances.

 The Gandhi scion’s earlier visits to the homes of an Amethi Dalit woman, Sunita Kori, or Kalavati Bandurkar, the widow of a farmer in Amravati, drew the criticism that it brought little change to their lives.In an attempt to strike a chord with the distressed farmers of Vidarbha in Maharashtra, Rahul had launched his ‘Samvad Yatra’ from Gunji village in Maharashtra’s Amravati district, the epicenter of farmers suicides, to highlight farmers’ woes in the region.

Rahul had visited these nine households in five villages between Gunji and Ramgaon during his ‘sanvad yatra’ on April 30. The party has deployed one Congress leader for each of the families of the farmers of Vidhabha —Ambadas Vahile, Kishor Namdev Kamble, Kachru Goma Tupsundre (all three from Boudh village), Nilesh Bharat from Maali, Maroti Mahaved Navare from Gowari, Manik Suryabhan Thakkar from Kunbi, Ramdas Urkuda Adkin, Shankar Devidas Adkin, Ashok Maratrao Satpaise from Teli.Maharashtra is one of the states that experienced severe agrarian crisis and Amravati division in Vidarbha region has witnessed many suicide cases of farmers.