'103 farmer suicides in Vidarbha'

The number of suicides by farmers in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra has touched 103 this month till yesterday, Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti, an NGO working for the cause of peasants, said claiming the figure was the highest in a calender month in this decade.

Reeling out statistics, Samiti, in a release here today, said from a "meagre" 16 suicides in June 2005, the figure shot up to 68 a year later and 90 last month, followed by 103 till August 29.

Samiti President Kishore Tiwari has blamed the "leakages" in the system for poor implementation of the Rs 3750-crore special package announced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently.

Three farmers allegedly ended their lives in last three days in Yavatmal district of the region, Samiti has claimed.