A total of 1,076 farmers died by suicide in Maharashtra in the past five months, State Disaster Management and Rehabilitation Minister Vijay Wadettiwar informed Maharashtra Legislative Assembly in a written reply on Friday.
In a written reply, Wadettiwar said, "As many as 1,076 farmers committed suicide in the state from June to October 2021. Of these, families of 491 deceased farmers were found eligible for financial aid from the state government."
"A total of 213 families of deceased farmers were not eligible for the financial aid while 372 matters are still pending before the district level scrutiny committee," the minister added.
Further, he said that financial aid has been provided to a total of 482 families out of 491 eligible beneficiaries so far.
Informing about the amount of aid given to the families, he said that each beneficiary is given Rs one lakh by the state government.
"On average, around seven farmers committed suicide every day here during the past five months," Wadettiwar said.
These statements came after the members of the Maharashtra legislative assembly raised questions over the number of suicides by farmers in the state and if their families were given financial aid so far.
According to the Maharashtra government policy of the year 2006, there are three categories under which the families of deceased farmers get financial aid.
"If farmers commit suicide due to crop failure, non-repayment of loan and being insisted to repay the loan again and again, then their families will get financial aid from the state government," the policy read.
( With inputs from ANI )
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