PTI

Vadodara / Mumbai, Dec 7: Congress leader and Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Friday criticised BJP President Rajnath Singh for claiming that not a single case of farmer suicide has been reported from Gujarat.

Speaking to PTI by phone, Deshmukh said the BJP chief was 'misguiding' the people of Gujarat and 'spreading lies'.

Addressing an election meet in Chokhandi here late last evening, Singh pointed out that while 1,463 farmers had committed suicide in Congress-ruled Maharashtra in past one year, but no such case has been reported from BJP-ruled Gujarat.

This was due to the Modi Government's progressive farm policy, he had added.

Rebutting Singh's claim, Deshmukh pointed out that about 500 farmers had committed suicide in Gujarat and even the Modi Government had admitted in the Assembly that several peasants in the state had ended their lives.

"If Gujarat has really achieved development on farm front, then why 50 per cent of cotton farmers were reeling under debt in North Gujarat," he asked.

Gujarat farmers were being denied adequate power supply to run their tube wells and water connections for irrigation purposes, the Congress leader remarked.

The Modi-led BJP Government was handcuffing farmers for using power for irrigation purposes, he alleged.

The Gujarat Government has not given any land to 35 lakh marginal farmers and 55 lac farm labourers. But on the other hand, it has handed over 45 lakh hectares to industrialists in the state, he claimed.