Mumbai: Farmer leaders have said that the state government has changed but the policy for farmers hasn’t, leading to an increase in the number of suicides. Raghunath Dada Patil, president of the Shetakari Sanghata-na, said that Mahara-shtra had witnessed a change in regime but its policy for farmers hadn’t changed forcing far-mers to commit suicide.

According to Mr Patil, the farm loan waiver scheme announced by the government over a year ago had very complicated terms and conditions. Every day, farmers had to go to the tehsil to check if their names were present on the list. And when they found that their names were not on the list, they committed suicide.

“Why is the government taking so much time to announce the eligibility of farmers? The government should have announced within the stipulated period the names of the farmers,” he said. Mr Patil also accused the government of preparing the PMFBY for the benefit of corporate companies.