Red tape, glitches: 991 farmers kill themselves as Maha bungles loan waiver

The loan waivers arrived after farmer protests in June 2017, but it has failed at numerous levels as govt and banks play blame game

Tukaram Kapse was only 10 when his father, Madhav, passed away. The oldest of six siblings, Tukaram took on most responsibilities at home and on the family farm in Pimpalgaon Dhage village in Nanded district of south-central Maharashtra.

Tukaram dropped out after grade IX and over the next 17 years, toiled on a 6.5-acre field, raising soya bean and jowar. He oversaw the education of his siblings, marriages of his sisters, built a pucca house for his family last year and had planned to install pipelines to irrigate his fields.

But the plummeting income