MVA raises issue of agrarian distress in Maharashtra assembly after award-winning farmer dies by suicide

Nagre, who had received the Adarsh Yuva Shetkari Puraskarhad, consumed poison at his farm at Shivni Aarmal village in Deulgaon Raja tehsil on Thursday morning.

Mumbai: Kailash Nagre, an award-winning farmer, had died by suicide on March 13 in Buldhana district of Maharashtra's Vidarbha region citing crop and irrigation woes - a development that again brought the agrarian distress to the forefront in the state.

The Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) is expected to raise the issue during the budget session of the Maharashtra legislature and has hit out at the Devendra Fadnavis-led Maha Yuti-NDA dispensation.

Nagre (43) was the recipient of Adarsh Yuva Shetkari Puraskar instituted by the state government, which he got in 2020.

Nagre had consumed poison at his farm at Shivni Aarmal village in Deulgaon Raja tehsil on Thursday morning. Nagre is survived by his wife and three children.

In a four-page suicide note he spoke about lack of crop production and shortage of water supply for irrigation.

The Andhera police station has registered an accidental death report and investigations are in progress.

Nagre had been demanding irrigation water for 14 villages from Khadakpurna reservoir for many years and had also staged a seven-day hunger strike last year.

Nagre was unable to harvest his six-acre farm due to water scarcity.

“My husband took this extreme step because of negligence on part of the government,” Nagre’s wife Sushila said.

“This government has no compassion for farmers and only wants to create communal divides in the state,” said Maharashtra Congress President Harshvardhan Sapkal.

“The suicide note is shocking. It reflects on the government’s inactiveness,” he said, adding that it highlights the urgent need to address the agrarian distress.

Shiv Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha member and the Uddhav Thackeray-led party’s chief spokesperson too slammed the government over the issues involving farmers.

“They are silent over issues of farmers, water…it speaks on everything else, whether political or personal…or Opposition leaders, however, they never speak about farmers,” he said.

Over the years, Kishor Tiwari, the founder of Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti, had been highlighting the plight of farmers and the agrarian distress.

Buldhana’s Kranti Kisan Sangathan leader Ravikant Tupkar said that it is a very said incident that a young farmer died by suicide. “The suicide note is painful. Tears will roll down from your eyes if you read it. In fact, it is the plight of the farmers today,” he said.