Mandya goes all out to woo farmers

Bengaluru: With Mandya becoming the epicentre of farmer suicides in Karnataka, the district administration is taking all possible steps to boost the morale of farmers which seems to be at an all-time low.

Of the more than 80 suicides that were reported across the State, Mandya, the sugar bowl of Karnataka, has recorded more than 35 cases since July 1 which had shocked one and all. The district administration is totally clueless about the reasons for such a large number of suicides despite assurances by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and a host of ministers that they were ready to take any measure to prevent farmers from taking the extreme step.

Deputy Commissioner of Mandya district, Dr Ajay Nagabhushan told Deccan Chronicle that of the total 35 plus cases reported in the last 27 days, the assistant commissioner headed committee had confirmed six cases as deaths due to agrarian reasons. In the rest of the cases, the committee was awaiting the postmortem and forensic sciences laboratory reports.

Many cases were booked as unnatural death cases pending medical and FSL reports. The AC headed committee is dealing with 23 cases which are likely to be disposed off after a thorough inquiry including seeking details from families on the extent of loan borrowed by deceased farmers from nationalised, co-operative and private money lenders. After receipt of reports, these unnatural death cases would be converted into suicides for agricultural related problems.

As part of prevention measures, the DC said he, along with the superintendent of police and chief executive officer of zilla panchayat were holding meetings with farmers every Saturdays at Raitha Samparka Kendras inviting bankers, officials from revenue and agriculture departments to have one to one discussion with farmers. Strict instructions had been given to bankers not to press farmers for recovery of loans and not serve notices to attach their movable and immovable properties. "Basically, it is like counseling farmers against taking the extreme step. We have told them that the government is ready to do whatever possible to address their problems and they need not get disheartened. There are 31 samparka kendras and all of them are being covered".

Besides, Dr Ajay said, three heads of districts-DC, SP and CEO were visiting hoblis in the district and have interacted with over 3,000 farmers so far. This had helped the district machinery to understand their problems and they are trying to solve many issues on the spot.

To help victims’ families, the DC said every eligible-educated member of each victim family was being given a job through outsourcing and children were being put in residential schools on humanitarian grounds. These measures were aimed at sending a message that the government was with them.