Nagpur, Aug 23 (IANS): As the country looks skywards at the moon-landing this evening, a disturbing development has hit the Vidarbha region of eastern Maharashtra with virtually one farmer committing suicide daily since June 1, in the Yavatmal district, activists said here on Wednesday.

Among the worst-hit in the country by the agrarian crisis, a staggering 82 Yavatmal farmers resorted to the desperate measure between June 1 till date, portending a dismal scenario for the government ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, warned Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti President Kishore Tiwari.

“This is not all. From January 1, at least 1,567 peasants’ lives, including several women, were snuffed out in the 10 districts of Vidarbha region, which is reeling under a series of natural or man-made problems of various kinds,” a grim Tiwari told IANS.

This 8-month figure (1,567) is itself a ‘new record’ in the past over 25 years after the agrarian crises of Vidarbha erupted first into the public domain after Tiwari started systematically monitoring what he calls an unending ‘farmers genocide’.

The development came days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that India had achieved a record agricultural growth in the past 9 years, he pointed out.

“However, if this is the tragedy in just one district and one region of a single state, then the data of other regions/states in the country may have more shocking revelations,” Tiwari said.

He reiterated that the core issues of agriculture costs, crop and credit are yet to be addressed by the Central government, which has hit the ordinary farmers all over India, particularly Maharashtra, and driving them to take the ultimate step of ending their lives.

Currently on a tour of the Vidarbha region, the Shiv Sena (UBT) leader also slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party government, alleging that all the so-called relief packages of the centre and state in the past 10 years failed to provide any succour to distressed farmers.

“Despite making all tall promises and assurances the chain of suicides does not end as ‘the backbone of the rural economy has collapsed’, along with corruption at local levels, lack of political initiative and an insensitive administration. The government is busy looking at the Moon rather than concentrating on the hell on earth where the tillers are toiling and boiling all their lives without adequate returns,” Tiwari said.

Listing the reasons for the latest spurt in farmers’ deaths, Tiwari said that the main cash crop, cotton - which is facing very low demand - has brought the economy to a halt, input costs have increased suddenly, public sector banks are providing little or no credits, government’s failure to

provide sustainable food pulses and oilseeds crop for the region, plus the fallout of the global climate calamity.

The VJAS chief said that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi must personally intervene in the crisis as it is the election year and the government’s

promises of making India a USD Five Trillion economy in the near future ‘are fast proving to be hollow’.