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Won’t 183 farmers’ death bring Rahul to State, asks BJP

CM Mr Kumaraswamy too spared no words to criticise the Siddaramaiah government
Bengaluru: Taking potshots at AICC Vice-President Rahul Gandhi for his visit to Punjab and Maharashtra to study the plight of farmers, BJP and Janata Dal (S) leaders have suggested that he tour Karnataka where 183 farmers have committed suicide in the last three years. “Mr Rahul has forgotten that over two lakh farmers ended their lives in last 10 years when the Congress led UPA Government was in power. He seems to have woken up now to have a first hand experience of farmers after a two month sabbatical”, lashed out Leader of the Opposition in the State Legislative Assembly Jagadish Shettar.
Mr Shettar contended that the figure of 183 farmers committing suicide in the State in the last three years given by Department of Agriculture is totally ‘false’. According to him, more farmers have ended their lives but it was being hushed up by the government to avoid embarrassment. The State government has a policy of giving compensation to families of those farmers who have availed crop loan only from nationalised banks or co-operative bodies.” The state may hush up these statistics but the union government has all records. BJP will raise this issue in the next Assembly session”.
Former CM Mr Kumaraswamy too spared no words to criticise the Siddaramaiah government. This government had given compensation only to 50 per cent of farmers who suffered heavy damage due to unseasonal rains in north Karnataka last year. Recently, a group of pomegranate farmers from Bagalkot and Vijayapura districts met the governor and sought permission for ‘mercy killing’ as they were unable to pay mounting debt due to pest attacks in the last two years. “Without knowing this, poor Rahul Gandhi has been travelling to BJP ruled states to study farmers’ plight. Let him come here to take a look at how his party has ruined the lives of farmers”.
Chamarasa Mali Patil, president of Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha and Hasiru Sene told Deccan Chronicle that the government would get the exact number of farmer suicides provided they remove the clause of bank documents to distribute compensation. If a farmer ends his life, the body has to be shifted to a nearby local hospital where the postmortem is conducted in the presence of the taluk magistrate. Many a time, the postmortem gets delayed due to non-availability of doctors. To avoid this, many cases of farmer suicides are not reported at all, he pointed out.
( Source : dc )
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