Mahadev Kinikar, 52, Veni Kotha village, Vidharbha The rs 400 cheque from the government that reached Indirabai this May was useless. Compensation for the hailstorm that destroyed her husband's crop in December 1997, the cheque was too late. Her husband Mahadev was dead. Burdened by two crop failures and an unpayable debt of Rs 32,000, he had jumped into a well on March 25. There was a final reminder of the Government's callousness: the cheque was in Mahadev's name and unusable. "These things happen," says Yavatmal Collector Rajiv Jalota. But why the delay? "Because of the cumbersome procedures." So much for procedure. The day after the cheque arrived, Chief Minister Manohar Joshi visited Indirabai. Suddenly the entire district administration was at Indirabai's doorstep, cleaning the area, repairing roads. Joshi then gave the widow a cheque for Rs 1 lakh. It was not over. Indirabai was also the only one of the 22 Vidharbha widows to directly accuse a moneylender, Shivram Pachgarhe, of driving a farmer to suicide. The police said there was no evidence. And Pachgarhe, who denies he is a moneylender, says he was "helping Mahadev" for the past five years because the pesticide shop would not give him credit. He won't get his money back. Neither will Indirabai her husband.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Aug 29, 2012--- ENDS ---
