Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari has said that about 10,000 farmers commit suicide in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra every year for multiple reasons, including poor irrigation facilities.
“To help them overcome the crisis, various steps are being taken to ease the agrarian distress, and focus is laid on diversification of the farm sector into renewable energy generation,” Mr. Gadkari said while addressing a public meeting here on Thursday.
Polavaram project
“I have personally kept my three sugar factories running in spite of the losses incurred by them, only to ensure the farmers’ welfare,” Mr. Gadkari said, while making a contextual reference to the importance of the Polavaram project which, he insisted, would really become the lifeline for the farmers of Andhra Pradesh, who were also hit by adverse weather and the vagaries of markets.
Recalling his visit to the Polavaram project when he was Union Minister for Water Resources, Mr. Gadkari said, as a farmer, he had an emotional attachment to it, and expressed happiness that 80% of the project had been completed after being severely hampered by some problems related to the contractor in the initial stages, which had since been resolved.
Projects such as Polavaram, which would prevent the flowing of an estimated 1,300 tmcft precious water into the sea, were the need of the hour, he asserted.
