A day after castigating its ally, the BJP, for funding a dance troupe’s travel to Thailand when suicides continued in drought-affected Marathawada, the Shiv Sena on Tuesday announced free travel in State transport buses for students pursuing higher education in the region.
The announcement was made by Shiv Sena’s Minister for Transport, Diwakar Raote citing suicide by Swati Pitale, a Class XI student from Latur in Marathawada on October 14. She wrote in her suicide note that she was taking the extreme step as her family was in debt, and she had no money to renew her daily bus pass which costs just Rs. 260. The 16-year-old went to her father’s dried up tomato farm, and allegedly consumed pesticide.
Pitale’s suicide was flagged by the Shiv Sena in an editorial on Monday to criticise the Devendra Fadnavis government for getting its priorities wrong. The editorial also referred to an RTI query which revealed that Rs. 8 lakh was allocated from CM’s relief fund for funding the travel of a dance troupe of government employees to Bangkok.
“Over 600 farmers have committed suicide this year, but this government has no qualms about sponsoring Thailand trip for the dance troupe. And this at a time when Swati Pitale could not afford Rs. 260 to renew her bus pass,” the editorial said.Mr. Raote said Pitale’s suicide had exposed the plight of the drought-affected farmers of Marathawada. He announced that students pursuing education higher than Class XI in Marathawada region would be able to travel free of cost for the remaining part of the academic year from November to March 2016. Meanwhile, Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut, who addressed a campaign rally for the panchayat elections in Latur, visited Pitale’s family, and provided a financial assistance of Rs. 50,000.
