Pesticide inhalation kills 18 farmers in Maha, 400 in hosp NAGPUR: Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday announced ex-gratia payment of Rs 2 lakh to the next of kin of farmers and labourers who died due to pesticide inhalation while spraying crops in Yavatmal district over the last few weeks. An inquiry has also been ordered into the matter under the assistant chief secretary (home). Eighteen farmers have been killed due to inhalation of `profefonos', a pesticide used on cotton, which is the main crop of the district, also known for the highest number of farmers' suicides. The CM also announced that the government will run an awareness campaign on safe use of pesticides, and distribute free masks. Farmers' organisations and some victims' kin, however, said the relief amount is too less as compared to the Rs 10 lakh compensation given to those who died in the recent Mumbai stampede. Kishore Tiwari, chairman of Vasantrao Naik Shetkari Swawalamban Mission (VNSSM), the state government think tank on farmers, too, had the same opinion. Sujata Perkhewar, daughter of Pahapal village's Vithal Perkhewar, who died due to pesticide spray , said the amount can hardly cover their expenses. A group of villagers from Kalamb tehsil of the district had submitted a memorandum to the collector on Tuesday seeking Rs 10 lakh as compensation. “Why should the government discriminate between those who died in Mumbai and Yavatmal? Even here people died while working to earn their livelihood,“ said Nitin Khadse of Jalka village in the district. The matter was reported neither by government hospital authorities, district administration, agriculture department or even the farmers' rights activists. There was no reporting from the official channel either. The ACS probe will look into why the whole episode was kept under wraps by all concerned departments. Even as there was a rapid increase in deaths, with hospitals swelling with patients, the matter was not reported to the higher levels in the government. It was discovered only after the story was reported in the media, said a source. Besides the 18 deaths, 467 affected people have been admitted in government hospitals.This is not a small number even in the normal course, and unnatural deaths have to be reported to the administration.But, in Yavatmal, no alarm was raised from any quarters till the toll had increased significantly. The phenomenon was being reported since July but the matter came to fore only by September-end, said a source privy to the government decisions following the deaths. .