MUMBAI : 'Lokmanch', the newly floated political party by former Samajwadi Party heavyweight Amar Singh, will support the demands of local parties for creation of small states, including Vidarbha in Maharashtra.   Party's state unit president Janardan Singh told mediapersons here today that Lokmanch has decided to support local parties which were fighting for separate states like Vidarbha, Telangana and Gorkhaland for their development.   Singh claimed that the development fund, allocated for the rural areas, had never reached the persons concerned as it was utilised for urbanisation in the metros. If small states were created, development fund would directly reach the rural areas which would boost rural economy, which in turn will help boost the country's economy, he said.   He further said cities were getting maximum benefit of the development projects and rural areas were the worst hit.

MUMBAI : 'Lokmanch', the newly floated political party by former Samajwadi Party heavyweight Amar Singh, will support the demands of local parties for creation of small states, including Vidarbha in Maharashtra.   Party's state unit president Janardan Singh told mediapersons here today that Lokmanch has decided to support local parties which were fighting for separate states like Vidarbha, Telangana and Gorkhaland for their development.   Singh claimed that the development fund, allocated for the rural areas, had never reached the persons concerned as it was utilised for urbanisation in the metros. If small states were created, development fund would directly reach the rural areas which would boost rural economy, which in turn will help boost the country's economy, he said.   He further said cities were getting maximum benefit of the development projects and rural areas were the worst hit.

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra Government has decided to fund educational expenses of children from over four lakh farmers' families facing financial troubles, in six Vidarbha districts.   "With a view to encourage the children of farmers to complete education, the government has sanctioned Rs 14.18 crore for their educational expenses by choosing 4,34,291 families in Vidarbha who are facing extreme financial crisis", a senior official from School Education Department told PTI. The students of standard I to XII from Amaravati, Akola, Yavatmal, Buldana, Washim and Wardha districts would get complete fee waiver, and Rs 500 per year to purchase textbooks, notebooks and other educational material apart from the regular scholarships, the official said.   The initiative has been taken after the Narendra Jadhav panel appointed by the government in 2007 to probe the farmers' suicides, recommended to provide educational facilities to the children of the farmers in suicide-prone areas.

MUMBAI: The Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS) , a farmers advocacy group in Vidarbha region, urged the government on Saturday to ban the film 'Peepli Live', saying that it hurts the sentiments of farmers in Maharashtra.   VJAS president Kishor Tiwar has dashed off a letter to Chief Minister Ashok Chavan urging him to ban the film. “The film should be immediately banned as it is hurting sentiments of lakhs of distressed and debt-trapped farmers of Maharashtra who are being forced to commit suicide due to wrong policies of Indian Government ,” Tiwari said.   In a statement issued from Nagpur, Tiwari said: “‘Earlier, TV serial ‘Bairi Piya’   shown that debt-trapped vidrabha farmers are selling daughters for clearing the debt, now ‘Peepli Live’ has shown Natha, a poor farmer from Peepli village in the heart of rural India is about to lose his plot of land due to an unpaid government loan.

MUMBAI: The Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS) , a farmers advocacy group in Vidarbha region, urged the government on Saturday to ban the film 'Peepli Live', saying that it hurts the sentiments of farmers in Maharashtra.   VJAS president Kishor Tiwar has dashed off a letter to Chief Minister Ashok Chavan urging him to ban the film. “The film should be immediately banned as it is hurting sentiments of lakhs of distressed and debt-trapped farmers of Maharashtra who are being forced to commit suicide due to wrong policies of Indian Government ,” Tiwari said.   In a statement issued from Nagpur, Tiwari said: “‘Earlier, TV serial ‘Bairi Piya’   shown that debt-trapped vidrabha farmers are selling daughters for clearing the debt, now ‘Peepli Live’ has shown Natha, a poor farmer from Peepli village in the heart of rural India is about to lose his plot of land due to an unpaid government loan.