Bengaluru: The state government’s claim that farmers are committing suicide due to harassment by private moneylenders has proved to be only half true with the government's internal report on farmer suicides showing that only 61 of the 462 farmers who committed suicide had taken loans from private money lenders.
The report has the details from April to September 12 this year. The state government had even boasted that it had cracked down on moneylenders by arresting more than 600 of them who were found harassing farmers.
The internal report available with Deccan Chronicle, reveals that 132 farmers had taken loans from nationalised banks, 92 from Regional Rural Banks while only 20 farmers had borrowed from co-operative banks.76 farmers who committed suicide are borrowers of co-operative associations while private financial institutions have given loans to 21 farmers. Only 61 farmers borrowed from local sources of the 462 farmers who committed suicide. “61 farmers who committed suicide had not borrowed anything,” the source said.
The source added that the state government had already rejected compensation demands in as many as 93 farmer suicide cases, while it has agreed to give compensation in 121 cases. “248 cases of suicides are being examined by the committee constituted by the state government,” the source claimed.
As expected sugarcane farmers were the ones under stress. Sixty one of those who committed suicide are sugarcane growers followed by 45 cotton growers and 39 paddy growers. Bagalakote, Belagavi and Vijayapura which are considered sugarcane bowls, witnessed only 47 suicides whereas Mandya alone recorded 47 deaths. Haveri came second with 35 deaths followed by Tumakuru with 33 suicides.
The highest number of deaths was reported in July and during this month, Mandya recorded an average of one farmer suicide a day.
