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conspiracy against him and his father, Dilip Sananda admitted that six cases were registered against his father Gokulchand for money lending. "My father was falsely implicated by the then district police superintendent, Krishna Prakash," he claimed. Around one lakh private moneylenders in the State are registered; and over two lakh are running the money
lending business illegally. Their modus operandi is simple --- provide loans at inflated rates, then, when the farmer fails to repay the amount, buy his agriculture produce at low prices, and as a final point jerk grab the land. Locals feel that the prime reason for the farmers' desperation is the inhuman debt noose tied around them by moneylenders to recover loans.
Even Relief Packages Worth Rs 5075 Crore Could Not Help The special relief packages of Rs 5,075-crore announced by the Prime Minister and the state government for distressed farmers have flopped. The CAG's performance audit of farmers' package fished out that not only was the packages delayed in implementation, but also senseless in conceptualization and "incoherent with local requirements." As a result, the money did not help mitigate the gargantuan agrarian crisis or even reduce farmers' suicides. On the contrary, the claims of State Government that the packages were highly successful in mitigating the agrarian crisis were trashed. Moreover, there were leap holes in it. The report was tabled in State Legislature in April, 2008. In CAG's evaluation, "The possibility that agrarian distress essentially caused by un-remunerative agricul-
ture would start rising again in the closing years of the package (200809), Farmers' suicides shot up dramatically even when the two packages were in vogue," the report acknowledges. CAG states, one of the essential deficiencies of the packages was the fact that the funds spent did not improve agricultural support prices. Importantly, the CAG says that farmers did not benefit from interest waiver. For, their incomes did not enhance in any way. The report also mentions that the Government's ban on illegal money lending did not stand before the HC in October 2006. The State neither appealed against these orders in the apex court. Consequently, the affected farmers, who had lost their lands to the money lenders, did not get any benefit.
But, there is a village where these nasty moneylenders think twice to step in. Dadham village in Akola district presents a different picture of the scenario. None of the moneylenders dares to visit this village either for lending or recovery of money. This change was seen after an angry village mob attacked and killed a moneylender Bandu Wakhare in 2006. Sanjay Khodke, who was arrested in the case, said that now no moneylender dares to come to the village. "Though we are facing hardships, the terror of moneylenders is not there," said Sanjay, managing a mild smile. Country in progressing in all aspects, except for this. Though the official figure states that around 7,500 farmers have ended lives since 2001, but the facts differ. Over 14,000 debt-ridden farmers were compelled to commit suicide, perhaps due to the lost struggle for survival, no feel good factor and acres of crop failure. Kishore Tiwari of Vidarbha Janandolan Samiti that has been documenting the farm suicide since 2001 claimed that an average two farmers commit suicide in Vidarbha every day because of agrarian crisis. "It is a case of genocide. The state is allowing the distressed farmers to end their lives," he alleged and demanded that the government should immediately provide food security to them for preventing further suicide.
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