Bengaluru: The spree of farmers’ suicides in the state was the main subject of discussion between Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and state Congress chief Dr G. Parameshwar in the city on Thursday.
Source said Mr Gandhi wanted to know why the suicides were happening at this juncture and why it had not happened earlier. He felt the state government should come up with more steps to help farmers and envisage programmes to alleviate their distress.
The Congress vice president reportedly told the Chief Minister that he could be a role model for the rest of the country if he could come up with schemes to help the farmers. He reassured Mr Siddaramaiah saying he was not at fault and farmers’ suicides were happening across the country.
Mr Gandhi also said he was willing to return to Karnataka later and wanted the CM and KPCC president to decide the dates for his visit. The CM said that the BBMP polls were scheduled to happen in August and it would have to be decided if his visit could happen before the polls or after.
Mr Siddaramaiah also made a strong defence of his government’s handling of the farmers’ suicides saying most of the deaths were not due to the debt burden but could be attributed to personal reasons and family disputes. He informed Mr Gandhi that the state government had moved fast to tackle the situation and had constituted district committees headed by the deputy commissioners concerned to probe each suicide. An expert committee had been set up at the state level to find out the reasons for the suicides and come up with remedial measures, he said.
