BELAGAVI: Jolted by a string of suicides by farmers in Karnataka, all of them in debt and distress, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi is likely to visit Karnataka to assess the situation.
Highly placed sources told Deccan Chronicle that date and places of visit of Mr Gandhi were not decided so far. He is likely to interact with families of the dead farmers to find out reasons for them to take the extreme step.
This would be a confidence building measure among farmers as 40 farmers had committed suicide in the last three months and seven farmers on Tuesday alone.
Recently, Mr Gandhi visited Uttar Pradesh and Punjab after a few farmers committed suicide. Likewise, he would come to Karnataka to assess the situation as well as to prevent further damage to the image of Congress government in the state.
183 farmers have committed suicide over the last three years
Sources said Mr Gandhi was gathering information about a spurt in the number of farmers committing suicide in Karnataka from the media. Though the party high command had not sought any report about the death of farmers from KPCC, the central leaders perhaps sought details from the Chief Minister’s office.
Admitting that the sudden increase in farmers’ suicide was a “crisis,” sources opined that the department of agriculture had failed to address this issue seriously. Agriculture minister Krishna Byre Gowda should have made efforts to collect details about reasons for farmers’ ending their lives and take remedial measures.
Unfortunately, officers of agriculture extension department who were supposed to visit villages to collect details from farmers had failed to discharge its duties.
The minister concerned should have pulled up officials concerned to take urgent steps to prevent farmers in future. The death of seven farmers in a day was not only ‘sad’ but ‘shocking’ too. Sources said presidents of district Congress committees had been put on job to compute details of families of these farmers in their respective districts along with crops grown, loans (both bank and private money lenders) borrowed and their economic status.
This would help create a data bank to study the factors which prompted farmers to take the extreme step, sources added.
