Rajasthan: Pilot tells Raje forget fitness challenge, stop farmer suicides

Hitting out at Rajasthan's Vasundhara Raje-led BJP government for only being engaged in accepting the fitness challenge passed on by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, state Congress chief Sachin Pilot said that if the Chief Minister is serious on accepting any challenge, it should be of putting a complete check on farmers' suicide.

He termed it a sad situation that right from the Prime Minister to Central Ministers to state ministers, everybody seems engaged in passing the fitness challenge, just to garner publicity, while the critical issues of the nation are being put aside.

Pilot also slammed the "insensitivity" of the state government, holding it responsible for the recent suicide committed by two farmers in Hadoti region.

"In the election year, the government has promised to waive off farmers' loan worth ₹50,000 which in general is too less an amount as they (farmers) have huge loans on their shoulders. The government has failed to arrange the promised funds of ₹8,000 crore to waive off the loans and hence now loans worth ₹200 crore can only be waived off with the limited funds," he added.

Pilot said that this "double-faced" attitude of the state government is triggering more suicides in the state, and also the government has failed to provide fair price to farmers' garlic yield which is yet another factor for the farmers committing suicide in big numbers.

Claiming that in the last one month, nine farmers have committed suicide in Hadoti region, which is the Chief Minister's constituency, he said that these have revealed the reality of tall claims made by the ruling government.