Oman industrialist good Samaritan for Vidarbha farm widows (With image)

Nagpur, April 23 (IANS) Widows of Vidarbha farmers who ended their lives unable to bear the stress of high debt have found a good Samaritan in an Oman-based industrialist.

Krishnakumar Taori, the Group Managing Director of Hasan Juma Backer Trading and Contracting Co. LLC, engaged in mega construction projects in Oman, has come to the rescue of the distressed community of eastern Maharashtra.

Taori, who was born to a cotton farmer in a remote village Ghuikhed in Yavatmal, travelled last week to Pandharkavada and distributed token relief to widows and orphans.

"He distributed saris and blankets to 200 widows in the village, plus Rs.1,000 cash per family which lost its breadwinner to the spate of suicides in the region," Kishore Tiwari of the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS) told IANS here Monday.

Taori also agreed to bear the actual costs of vocational and academic education for the orphans from the village by way of fees and educational material, Tiwari added.

Saddened by the plight of his erstwhile native region, Taori, who earned his engineering degree from Nagpur, will return next week to finalise plans to set up a technical institute in his native village, Ghuikhed, he said.

"Taori will hold meetings with government and other officials to hammer out the modalities for setting up an ITI in this area which would immensely benefit the young population, especially the orphans."

Explaining Taori's largesse, Tiwari said he (Taori) was deeply disturbed by the spate of farmland suicides which have continued unabated in Vidarbha since the past few years.

"Accordingly, he decided to take the first step and distributed the token aid in memory of his mother, Kamlabai Taori to the widows of Pandharkavada village," Tiwari said.

Since the past five years, Taori is engaged in providing free education to tribal children of the backward Melghat in Amravati district through the Eklavya Vidyalaya of Vanvasi Kalyanashram.

According to Tiwari, Taori now wants to increase his social presence by taking up the responsibility to educate the orphans, especially girls, to make them economically independent.