CM Siddaramaiah’s district tops in compensation

BENGALURU: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s home district Mysuru tops the list of districts with the highest number of farmers compensated for suicides in 2017, shows data by Agricultural Department. As of December 14, 2017, a total of 52 farmer suicides in the district were cleared for compensation — the highest among districts, followed by Belagavi with 51.However, compared to data in the past two years, Karnataka recorded the least number of farmer suicides in 2017. Activists say that numbers do not reflect the ground realities, and have urged the government to come up with more measures to tackle the ongoing agrarian distress. However, State government maintains that initiatives such as loan waiver have helped in reducing the crisis. Between January 1 and December 14, 2017, 890 farmer suicide cases were reported, of which 627 cases were accepted as genuine. 

Compensation has been paid in 618 cases, while 145 cases have been rejected. State provides a compensation of `5 lakh for farmer suicide due to crop loss. Among the districts, the highest number of cases was reported in Chikkamagaluru district at 74. However, according to Agriculture Department, only 48 of the said cases were accepted, while 17 cases were rejected.  Mysuru district was second in terms of total suicides reported at 70 of which 52 were compensated. In 10 of the 30 districts, the number of farmer suicides in which compensations was paid exceeded 30. .

In Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts, no farmer suicides were reported during the period. Farmer suicides were low in districts such as Bengaluru Rural, Kolar and Ramanagar, where only two deaths were reported during the year.However, Kuraburu Shanthakumar, president of Karnataka Rajya Kabbu Belegarara Sangha, told Express that official figures did not reflect the actual number of farmers ending their lives. “In the last four and half years, about 4,000 farmers have committed suicide.

However, only 2,300 odd farmers were given compensation as the rest did not fulfil the parameters,” he said. Agriculture Minister Krishna Byregowda said, “The number of suicides has been declining due to various interventions made by our government. Suicides and recurrent droughts were the main reasons for waiving farmers’ loans.”