HUBBALLI: Another farmer in distress and debt committed suicide in Kuragund village of Haveri taluk on Friday night. This young farmer, Jagadish Kideganni, 32, gulped down pesticide as he was depressed about loss of crops and in distress because he could not repay two loans—one for the crop and another for an autorickshaw—and found it difficult to manage his family including three small children. While he had borrowed Rs 2.3 lakhs State Bank of India for the crop, he had taken loan from a private firm for the three-wheeler.
He was living in a dilapidated house and found it difficult to make both ends meet. He originally owned five acres of agricultural land, but parted with nearly half of it or Upper Tunga Project five years ago. The government, however, had not disbursed compensation for acquiring his land, adding to the woes of the farmer and his kin. “Jagadish failed to repay the loans as he lost maize, cotton and chilli crops due to a recurring drought for the last three years. He frequented several offices seeking disbursement of compensation for land acquired by the government for the irrigation project, but only in vain. His debt increased because he failed to repay his loans,” said Virupakshappa Kideganni, the victim’s brother.
Farmers’ leaders claimed that he was promised annual compensation of Rs 15,000 an acre for giving up land for the project till the government arrived at a final amount to be disbursed to Jagadish and others. He, however, got only Rs 30,000 during five years to make up for loss of crops in land given up him for the irrigation project.
Irked by another suicide by a farmer in distress, Hanumantappa Hucchavvanhalli, president of Haveri district farmers association, warned that an agitation would be launched if the state government does not pay Rs ten lakhs as ex gratia to the kin of Jagadish.
He also demanded the state government to provide education free to the farmer's children and early disbursement of compensation for parting with his land as per new land acquisition policy of the Union government.
Mr Prakash Nagaralli, tahsildar, who met the kin of Jagadish, said compensation would be paid to his kin verification of documents on Monday.
