19.06.2007 | permalink
At long last a delegation of the hapless farmers’ widows of Vidarbha region who have committed suicides got an audience with the President of India Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on Friday to draw his attention to their hapless and helpless condition. Dr Kalam in rapt attention heard the woes of the widows who reportedly broke down while narrating their tale of woes and plight. The scheduled allotted time of five minutes for the meeting got stretched to 25 minutes. [...] The memorandum demanded, among other things, a blanket ban on Bt. cottonseeds in the dry land farming areas. It also urged a ban on misleading advertisements of Bt. cottonseeds.