Meagre compensation for damage due to rain drives farmers to suicide

Hubli: Sixty-year old farmer, Rajasab Nadaf , of Doddur village in Shirahatti taluk of Gadag was offered merely Rs 45 per gunta as compensation for the loss of crop he suffered in the recent heavy spell of  rain, sending him into deep despair as it did not in any way help him recover his losses or repay his loan of  Rs 3 lakh. Seeing no way out , he drank some poison and killed himself on his farmland.

But local Congress legislator Ramakrishna Dodamani has still not visited his house to console his family as he is on a foreign jaunt with 15 other legislators of rain-hit North Karnataka.
The compensation offered to the farmer worked to Rs 1,800 per acre although he had spent over Rs 20,000 per acre to grow his onion and cotton crop. His family says its cannot even buy one bag of fertiliser with the meagre compensation offered.

It is not alone in its suffering as thousands of farmers in the region are today running from pillar to post seeking higher compensation even as official assessment of the crop loss is on the verge of completion.  

"My father made futile attempts to sell the damaged onion crop in the open market.  The compensation being paid by the officials is not enough even to clear our fields of the damaged crop," laments Rajasab's grieving  son,  Fakrusab.

Besides those who have lost their crops, over 6000 farmers, who have lost their homes in heavy rain in Gadag district,  are struggling to rebuild their houses from the paltry compensation given by the government.

They say they cannot afford to buy even one load of  sand to repair their houses from the Rs 2,300 to Rs 3,800 offered.  

But ask assistant commissioner of the district,  Islauddin Gadyal and he says the compensation is being paid under the guidelines of the Natural Disaster Response Fund and he can do nothing about it.