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Uddhav Thackeray scraps Devendra Fadnavis scheme that failed to halt farmer suicides

MUMBAI: The Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government has scrapped yet another scheme launched by former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis for halting farmers' suicides. The relief and rehabilitation department on Wednesday promulgated a one-page order stating that the Baliraja Chetana Yojana, announced July 24, 2015, has been scrapped with immediate effect since the scheme has failed to halt farmers' suicides in Vidarbha and Marathwada regions .



A senior bureaucrat said that the MVA government had reviewed the scheme and found that there was no reduction in the number of suicides in Osmanabad and Yavatmal districts. As per official records, between 2001 and 2019, 32,605 farmers committed suicide in Maharashtra and 46% of the total cases-14,989-were reported between 2015 and 2018, when Fadnavis led the BJP-Sena government.

Implemented in 2016, the scheme had provided for identification of distressed farmers, organising mass marriages for farmers' sons and daughters, providing them better health care and restructuring of loans. The Fadnavis government had also proposed that schemes of the public health, revenue, finance, water resources, and woman and child welfare departments would be merged to provide assistance to farmers in distress.

Initially, the scheme was launched in Osmanabad in Marathwada and Yavatmal in Vidarbha with initial provision of Rs 48.9 crore and Rs 45.7 crore, respectively. Further, a provision of Rs 7,183 crore was made for completion of on-going irrigation projects in 14 suicide-prone districts in the state. The responsibility for implementing the schemes was entrusted to the district collectors concerned.

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