Bhubaneswar: Agriculture Minister Pradeep Maharathy Tuesday told state Assembly that 227 farmers had committed suicide in the last five years in state due to various reasons but not because of loan burden or crop loss.
Replying to a query of Sanatan Mahakud, Maharathy, he said his department has received allegations of suicide of 227 farmers between 2013-14 and 2017-18. However, crop loss or loan burden was not the reason for their extreme step, he said.
The government cited several reasons for the suicides including mental disturbance, illness, depression, consumption of alcohol and family quarrel.
Interestingly, the minister said, investigation is still underway to know the reason behind the death of Bargarh’s Brundaban Sahu, who committed suicide November 1, 2017. The death of Sahu rocked the House at that time.
While the government received reports on the death of 11 farmers due to alleged suicide in 2013-14, the number was five in 2014-15 and 175 in 2015-16, he said.
Maharathy further said the Agriculture Department received reports of 16 suicide of farmers in 2016-17 and 20 in 2017-18.
Elaborating steps taken by government for farmers’ welfare, Maharathy said special agriculture budget is being presented every year and the allotment is substantially enhanced every passing year.
Similarly, he said, the government has formed separate Agriculture Cabinet to consider various issues pertaining to agriculture and allied sectors while agriculture policy is being implemented.
Meanwhile, Opposition Congress and BJP slammed the government for not admitting the farmer suicide cases due to crop loss and loan burden.
“The state government never accepted the death of farmers due to agriculture activities. It will not do so in future also. It is very unfortunate for our farmers,” said Congress MLA Prafulla Majhi.
BJP legislator Pradeep Purohit said, “It is unfortunate that the state government is not accepting a single death due to crop loss or debt burden. Already a year has passed after the death of Brundaban Sahu, but the government is still investigating.”
Reacting to the allegations, BJD leader Dibya Shankar Mishra said, “The Centre has not hiked the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for paddy. Had the government enhanced it, the farmers would have got good price for their products and might not have committed suicide.”
PNN
