Another farmer ends life in Saurashtra,toll reaches 8

Crop failure in scarcity-hit Rajkot district has driven another farmer to commit suicide,taking the number of such incidents to eight in Saurashtra this season.

According to the Rajkot district police,38-year-old Kishor Pethani consumed poison at Patanvav village in Dhoraji taluka on Saturday evening and died a couple of hours later at the Rajkot Civil Hospital.

Pethani reportedly consumed poison at his farm and then called up a friend to inform that water scarcity had completely damaged the seeds that he sowed on over two acres of land,police said.

He was reportedly doing farming in partnership with his elder brother.

This was the eighth incident of suicide by a farmer in the region. Rajkot district has so far reported four such incidents,Amreli two and Junagadh and Jamnagar one each.

After declaring all the seven districts in the region scarcity-hit,the state government has announced to distribute free fodder,provide new electricity connections and a Rs 5,000-grant per bigha to those willing to grow fodder. The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has also talked about restructuring its agriculture loan plan.

Fodder loot bid in Jamnagar

RAJKOT: A farmer at Hathijikhabada village in Jamjodhpur taluka of Jamnagar district was allegedly beaten up,tied to a tree and robbed of Rs 600 by three masked men on Saturday night after he refused to give them fodder.

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In a complaint filed with the taluka police,the farmer,Ramji Dangar,said that when he was sleeping outside his house at the farm,three to four masked men came and demanded fodder. When Dangar refused to do so,the assailants beat him up and and searched for fodder,but they failed to find any.

Following this,they tied Dangar to a tree and decamped with Rs 600.

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