Devendra Fadnavis accused Sharad Pawar of stopping water supply to Vidarbha (File)

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday blamed Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar and his policies for farmer suicides in the state.

"Farmer suicides are the sin of Sharad Pawar and his government in Maharashtra. It started and increased during your regime," he said.

"Pawar is talking about farmer suicides in his rallies in Vidarbha. I want to ask him, who was in power in Maharashtra when farmers started committing suicides," he added.

Mr Fadnavis accused Mr Pawar of stopping water supply to Vidarbha and said the latter's "corrupt policies" robbed people of the region of funds.

"You stopped water being supplied to Vidarbha region. You were a minister at the centre and you were in power in Maharashtra for the last 15 years (between 1999-2014). Your corrupt practices siphoned off funds meant for Vidarbha's farmers. You slowed down irrigation in this region. Hence, farmers are forced to commit suicide," Mr Fadnavis said.

Mr Fadnavis said regions in the state where water is readily available for irrigation do not see farmer suicides whereas areas which are not irrigated properly tend to have high number of such incidents.