Debt-ridden Hingoli farmers offer to sell organs to repay loans

Ten farmers from Hingoli district have expressed their willingness to sell their organs to repay their crop loans. They have submitted a memorandum to the State government through Senagaon tehsildar to this effect on Wednesday. They have been identified as Gajanan Kawarkhe, Vijay Kawarkhe, Deepak Kawarkhe, and Rameshwar Kawarkhe. The list also includes a few others as well. The memorandum said that they are unable to pay their crop loans due to attack of yellow mozak virus on Soyabean and another diseases on cotton. Hence they have listed price of organs such as kidney Rs, 75000, liver, 90,000 and eye Rs. 25,000. The farmers' step has shocked the local authorities. 

Earlier, a farmer from Hingoli facing a debt of around ₹20 lakh has written a letter to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde seeking a compensation for his crop losses and said if he does not get it, he will have no option but to commit suicide.Gajanan Narayan Awchar, hailing from Sapatgaon in Sengaon taluka of Hingoli, in his letter written to the CM on July 23 said he has pomegranate plantation over a hectare of land.The farmer claimed he has not been able to sell the produce in any market since the COVID-19 pandemic and the crop infections since two years have increased the losses to ₹50 lakh.In the letter submitted to the chief minister's secretariat on July 24, Awchar claimed he has no means to earning to sustain his family comprising five members as he has a debt of nearly ₹5 lakh from a bank and ₹15 lakh from another financial institution.The farmer also claimed he has been receiving notices from the bank and facing mental harassment for not being able to repay the loan."The government should compensate, or else there is no way left for me but to commit suicide," he said in the letter.