Amravati (Maharashtra), Dec 4 (IANS) In a major embarrassment for Maharashtra’s ruling Democratic Front government, a debt-ridden farmer attempted suicide by consuming poison during an election rally of Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan in Dhamangaon village, near here, Sunday.
Arun Sabane (30), was shouting slogans demanding better prices for cotton and soyabean farmers along with other farmers, when suddenly, he whipped out a bottle of poison and consumed it in full public view, said NGO Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti chief Kishor Tiwari.
Police immediately rushed him to the nearby Dhamangaon civil hospital but when his condition failed to improve, he was shifted to the government hospital at the district headquarters.
Terming his condition as ‘critical,’ Tiwari said that besides Sabane’s suicide attempt, 10 other debt-ridden farmers have already ended their lives in just the first four days of December.
Incidentally, this was the same venue visited by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh June 30, 2006 to provide ‘a healing touch’ to the farmers of Vidarbha, when Chavan had accompanied him as the then minister of state in the prime minister’s office.
A visibly disturbed Chavan is later believed to have instructed the district administration to make all efforts to save Sabane’s life.
Incidentally, last week the VJAS wrote to the State Election Chief Neela Satyanarayan, requesting her to relax the ongoing election code of conduct enforced for the ensuing civic body polls, to enable the state government announce a relief package for the debt-ridden farming community of the state.
