Separate Vidarbha? Forget about it

Revenue minister Narayan Rane on Monday warned the BJP leaders that they should stop dreaming of statehood to Vidarbha as neither the government nor the people of Vidarbha are in favour of it. This is for the first time that any minister or Congress leader has firmly expressed views on the issue of independent Vidarbha.

Rane said the people from Vidarbha region have never been in favour of the statehood status.

“The results of the two elections recently showed it clearly as the both the ruling parties gained majority from the region. The leaders demanding independent status should realise clearly that they should stop dreaming about it,” he said.

The Congress leaders so far have never come out so emphatically against the demand for a separate Vidarbha. Even in the assembly and the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress chose to take an ambiguous stand on the matter.

Some of its leaders were in favour of the independent status, while others had left it to the party high command.

Rane said the BJP was trying to gain political mileage out of the issue. “Nobody will deny the plight of the farmers in Vidarbha. The need of the hour is to strengthen the farmers socially and economically. Efforts are needed to be put in by all the parties.

“Our government will leave no stone unturned to make the farmers from Vidarbha capable of fighting all odds. Apart from providing them fertilisers and seeds, adequate loans will also be made available,” he said.

The minister said his government never discriminated against farmers based on the region. “If the farmers from western Maharashtra are treading on forefront in farming, we should try to take farmers from Vidarbha and Marathwada on a par with them and my government is committed to achieving this goal,” he added.

“The government can fight if the problems of the farmers are of economic nature. But farmers are committing suicide because of other reasons, such as illness and lack of money for the wedding of their daughters. We should address these issues through awareness drives.”

Rane admitted that 6,161 farmers have committed suicide since 2001. “Suicide is not new to the region. Farmers have been committing suicide for last 50 years. But our government has sincerely attempted to get rid of it,” he added.

He claimed that the per capita income of the farmers in six districts with agrarian crisis of the Vidarbha has improved significantly in the past 10 years.

Rane also said that the government has demanded a new package of Rs7,264 crore from the Centre for the farmers of suicide-prone areas of Vidarbha.