Thursday, May 31, 2007

Hullabol Agitation in State of Indian Cricket Minister

Hullabol agitation in state of Indian Cricket Minister who has doffed his hat into the ring for organizing Cricket World Cup :

DEBT TRAPED VIDARBHA FARMERS TO START "HALLABOL AGITATION" FOR FRESH CROP LOAN
NAGPUR - 30MAY 2007 :

SIX VIDARBHA FARM SUICIDES IN DAY ON 29TH OF MAY REPORTED WHEN INDIAN AFTER PRIME MINISTER WAS ADDRESSING FARM DISTRESS ISSUE AT NEW DELHI IN NATIONAL PRODUCTIVITY COUNCIL MEET ALONG WITH CHIEF MINISTERS OF FARM SUICIDE EFFECTED STATES TAKING TOLL OF VIDARBHA FARM SUICIDES TO 410 SINCE JANUARY 2007

HAVING FAILED TO GET NO RESPONSE FROM INDIAN GOVT. ON THE CREDIT FRONT THAT'S VIDARBHA COTTON FARMERS DEMANDING FRESH CROP LOAN BY WAIVING OLD PENDING DUES AS MORE THAN 2 MILLION ARE UNDER DEBT TRAP AND BEING DEFAULTER GOVT. BANKS ARE NOT GIVING FRESH CROP LOAN TO THEM FORCING THEM TO TAKE LOAN FROM UNREGULATED PRIVATE MONEY LENDERS WHO CHARGING EXORBITANT 100% TO 150% INTEREST RATE ,FARMER HAVE DECIDED TO START "HALLOBOL AGITAION" BEFORE THE BANKS IN ORDER TO GET FRESH CROP LOAN FROM 18TH JUNE,2007,KISHOR TIWARI OF VIDARBHA JAN ANDOLAN SAMITI INFORMED TODAY.

LAST YEAR INDIAN GOVT. WAIVED OFF OVER DUE INTEREST ON FARMERS BANK DEBT TO THE TUNE OF RS.710 CRORE AND RECONSTRUCTED CROP LOAN AMOUNTING RS.1860 CRORE BRINING AROUND ONE MILLION FARMERS UNDER INSTITUTIONAL CREDIT BUT DUE COTTON CROP FAILURE AND POOR MARKET PRICES FOR THE COTTON MORE THAN 90% FARMERS FAILED TO REPAY THE CROP LOAN. 'MORE THAN 3 MILLION VIDARBHA FARMERS ARE IN HUGE DEBT AND OVER DUE LOAN WAIVER IS THE ONLY SOLUTION TO SAVE THESE DISTRESSED FARMER FROM SUICIDE'KISHOR TIWARI ADDED.

'WHEN GOVT. CAN PAY RS.710 CRORE AS PART OF INTEREST ON UNPAID DEBT THEY PAY FARMERS DEBT TOO' VJAS LEADER DEMANDED.VIDARBHA FARMERS WILL SATRT AGITAION FROM 18TH JUNE-2007 IN ORDER TO PRESS THE MAIN DEMND OF LOAN WAIVER, INFORMED CJAS PRESS REALEASE.

Friday, May 18, 2007

Vidarbha Agrarian Crisis PMPackage Review ?

Chief Minister Deshmukh to review Prime Minister Vidarbha Farmers' packages in Yavatmal ?
[10 May, 2007 l 0421 hrs ISTl Ramu Bhagwat lTIMES NEWS NETWORK]

SMS NEWS to 8888 for latest updates
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Nagpur/CM_to_review_farmers_packages_in_Yavatmal/articleshow/2024327.cms

NAGPUR: During his day-long Vidarbha visit on Saturday next, chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh is scheduled to review implementation of the special relief packages for farmers in Yavatmal district, considered to be ground zero of the region's suicide belt.

In the last six years, over 800 farmers have ended their lives in the district.

Once the prime cotton growing district with the largest area under its cultivation, now largest number of suicides are reported from there among the six cotton growing districts of the region.

Through the special package announced by prime minister Manmohan Singh on July 1 last and the CM's package unveiled months before that, over 12 lakh farmers in the six distressed districts were promised a relief of over Rs 5000 crore.

Even as a controversy is raging after joint secretary (relief and rehabilitation) Praveen Shrivastav's filing of an affidavit claiming poor funds flow, the official website of the relief mission (Vasantrao Naik Shetkari Swawalamban Mission) indicates that only about Rs 38 crore of the promised funds for loan waiver to farmers has been released by the Centre.

The chart in the website claims it is updated up to April 30. However, VNSS director general and Amravati divisional commissioner Sudhir Goel told ToI that the balance amount of around Rs 350 crore was credited by March 31 and he was informed about it during meeting on Tuesday in New Delhi with the PMO officials.

While Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti convener Kishor Tiwari alleged that funds flow continued to be very poor on irrigation projects as well as quality seeds distribution programme under the package, Goel said the state had spent the targeted amount and was to reimbursed by the Centre. He denied that package implementation was suffering for want of funds.

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Plane From Punjab for Punjab Da Puttar ?

Escape from Punjab : By Devinder Sharma

I was at a dinner with a Punjabi family in the outskirts of London. Mohinder Singh’s youngest brother who had only a few months before made it to England was visibly upset: “You are the only Punjabi I know who keeps on going back to India. Why don’t you stay here permanently?”

When I told him that I am often invited to UK to speak at various conferences, and yet I don’t want to settle here legally or illegally, he couldn’t believe me. “There are instances when I am abused on the streets by the whites if that is what you are meaning, there was also this bizarre incident of one of the white teenager’s pissing on me while I lay on the beach one day but bhai ji this is still heaven. Come on, think about it again!”

Surinder Singh, the youngest brother in the Punjabi family I am talking about, is not the only one who feels he has crossed over to heaven. Millions of Punjabis’ cherish the dream to escape from Punjab. Legally or illegally, they are willing to take all kinds of risks. Such is the desire and desperation to escape that scores of villages in the ‘migration belt’ of Punjab -- Phagwara, Jalandhar and Kapurthala districts – are empty. Almost all houses in these villages remain locked throughout the year.

Punjabis are by nature enterprising. Defying all academic norms of ‘distress migration’ or the ‘pull or push factor’ in migration, most Punjabis believe that migration is the best form of economic growth. They have seen this happening with generations of migratory workers who made it to the plantation sector in Southeast Asia or as industrial workers in England, Canada and to some extent as farm workers in New Zealand, California, Germany and Italy.

It was in early 1980s that I first tracked a group of asylum seekers who had landed in East Berlin (than part of the German Democratic Republic). Once in East Berlin, they would crossover to West Berlin by train where with the help of some lawyers they would have their papers ready. A majority of those who followed this escape route were apprehended at West Berlin. While their papers were being scrutinised, these migrants would be lodged in what was then popularly called ‘flower houses’ – an apology for a dingy accommodation herding some 20-25 people in one room.

The German government provided them with subsistence allowance as long as they were in the ‘flower houses’. Realising that migrants were ‘saving’ from even such paltry amounts ostensibly to send some money back home, the government finally provided them with food stamps that could be exchanged in the grocery stores. I remember asking one of the Punjabi migrants who was awaiting deportation back to India as to why did he take the risk. His reply still reverberates in my ears: “My parents have sold off the land to collect money for my travel. They are under the impression that within months of my landing in Europe, I will start minting money. I therefore save as much as possible from my daily allowance so that I don’t let their dream die.’

The unsavoury trend still continues. After the collapse of the Berlin Wall, illegal trafficking has found new escape routes. Whether it is through Morocco, Egypt or Turkey or whether it is through sports and culture, the fact remains that Punjabis are more than eager to escape. After all, what makes them so desperate that they are willing to take the risk of their life? Why is that Punjabis, who are economically well off as compared to the rest of the country, are still not satisfied? Is something terribly wrong with the underbelly of Punjab that we don’t see?

Punjab is undoubtedly the food bowl of the country. It is the harbinger of the Green Revolution that swept through well-endowed regions of the country. For 40 years now, ever since Green Revolution began, the nation has eulogised the Punjab farmer. Newspapers have reported time and again about the visible prosperity ushered in through intensive agriculture. Magazine articles have featured the opulent life style of prosperous Punjabi farmers. Not many of the feature writers however tried to look beyond the false sense of pride the farmers exhibited. Not many journalists tried to explore the reasons behind the new- found prosperity -- not because of agriculture but because of monthly remittances or their side business activities.

Punjab’s underbelly was gradually caving in. Agriculture had turned not only unremunerative but also highly unsustainable. Intensive farming had led to the collapse of Green Revolution. Farmers were pumping in more chemical inputs to maintain their crop harvests. Over the years indebtedness began growing to phenomenal levels. A recent Punjab Agricultural University shows as many as 89 per cent of Punjab farm households are reeling under debt. The per farm family debt today stands at a staggering Rs 1,78,934. In other words, for every hectare of land holding, the outstanding debt is Rs 50, 140.

Still worse – tractors -- the symbol of prosperity have now turned into a symbol of suicides. Tractor owners are more heavily indebted with the average outstanding exceeding Rs 2 lakh. Marginal and small farmers owning tractors are still worse off. With the input prices climbing year after year and the output prices remaining static, Punjab farmers became a victim of the same economic policies that projected them as country’s heroes. No wonder, the average income of a Punjab farm family hovers around Rs 3,000 a month.

Over the years, intensive farming practices have pushed farmers deeper into debt. High-chemical input based technology has already mined the soils and ultimately led to the lands gasping for breath, with the water-guzzling crops (hybrids and Bt cotton) sucking the groundwater acquifer dry, and with the failure of the markets to rescue the farmers from a collapse of the farming systems, the tragedy is that the human cost is entirely being borne by the farmers. In Punjab, of the 138 development blocks, 108 have already been declared dark zones, the level of groundwater exploitation in these blocks has been in excess of 98 per cent against the critical limit of 80 per cent. The resulting destruction wrought on the natural resource base – soil health deteriorating, water table plummeting and pesticides contaminating the environment – agriculture has turned into a losing proposition. More and more Punjab farmers therefore began to abandon agriculture. With no job opportunities coming in handy, escape from Punjab became a viable alternative.

What is intriguing are the missing numbers. In 1990-91, there were 2.95 lakh marginal and 2.03 small operational landholdings. In ten years time, by 2000-01, these had come down to 1.23 lakh marginal and 1.73 lakh small operational holdings. A careful perusal would show that nearly 1.20 lakh farm families had moved out of agriculture in the ten years period. Where have these families gone? What alternative employment opportunities have they adopted? No one knows about that.

I am not suggesting that they had migrated in search of greener pastures. But with rampant corruption keeping them out of government jobs, the only avenue open for the Punjabi youth is to migrate. Whether they apply for a police constable job or for a bus conductor, they are invariably asked to cough out money. “If I have to pay Rs 20 lakh to Rs 35 lakh for a Class III government job, what do you expect me to do?” asks Manpreet Singh, a resident of Ropar district. “Isn’t it better that I spend the same money to pay to the travel agents to find me an escape to Europe or Canada?”

Punjab’s underbelly is certainly in an unforeseen crisis. It is time to feel the pain and anguish the youth are faced with. It is time to put the house in order. The sooner the better.

Monday, May 07, 2007

Thousand Rupees Debt ? Visit Jail

In Andhra Pradesh - After a lull of some years, farmers are being jailed for debt in Andhra Pradesh. Even those in drought-hit districts who cannot repay their loans. Farm unions see the banks as driving a dangerous and explosive process which lets off crorepati defaulters but jails bankrupt farmers owing a few thousand rupees.
Story in The Hindu by P Sainath - grandson of former President of Indian Shri V V Giri
M. Nallapa Reddy, an Anantapur farmer in his Sixties who was jailed when he failed to repay his bank debt in full. Other farmers in Andhra Pradesh appear to be in similar trouble.
More - Date: 05/05/2007 -http://www.thehindu.com/2007/05/05/stories/2007050507911100.htm