Bhopal:
The killing fields of Madhya Pradesh get bloodier as the state battles its worst-ever agrarian crisis.
In August last year, farmers in the state lost 60% of the summer (Kharif) crop due to lack of rains and only five months later, they lost 80% of the winter (Rabi) crop in the frost.
The stunning losses and mounting debts have pushed many farmers to the edge
The compensation survey is going slow. Instead, there is charged political one-upmanship.
Suresh Pachouri, President, Madhya Pradesh Congress said, "I have decided to stay hungry till farmers are extended help."
Even the state Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that he would go on a hunger strike February 13 onwards. He is adding pressure to his demand of a Rs 15,000-crore compensation from the Centre.
Yet in a cruel irony, his government is not ready to consider many deaths as farm suicides. Nor has it waived off 50% farm loans as promised earlier. The farmers eventually end up being lost between empty promises and political rhetoric.