The Hindu : Kerala News : Farmers' suicide rocks the House again

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Thursday, Jul 15, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Farmers' suicide rocks the House again

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, JULY 14. Farmers' suicide once again rocked the State Assembly, with the Opposition staging a walkout in the House today after nearly 30 minutes of wordy duel with the Government for its `insensitivity' to a tragedy of such dimensions.

As the Chief Minister, A.K. Antony, and the Agriculture Minister, K.R. Gouri, presented their replies to a submission on the subject, the Leader of the Opposition, V.S. Achuthanandan, kept on intervening with the demand to stop `justifying their insensitivity by resorting to technicalities'. Members on either side too were on the feet, raising an uproar.

The crux of the submission, moved by Mr. Achuthanandan, was that the State Government, `in its false sense of pride', had hidden from the Union Government the real gravity of the farmers' plight in the State.

Mr. Achuthanandan quoted a statement made in the Lok Sabha by the Union Minister for Agriculture, Sharad Pawar, that the State Government had not reported any farmer's suicide from here. The newspapers were, almost on a daily basis, coming out with reports of debt-ridden farmers ending their lives, he said.

"What do you hope to gain by this," he asked. "Your false sense of pride is depriving the poor farmers of the much-needed assistance from the Centre".

Mrs. Gouri said the Opposition could not hope to "convert a falsehood into a truth by repeating the it again and again". She clarified that the actual question from the Union Government was whether there had been an `increase' in the incidence of suicides among the farmers of Kerala during the last six months.

And the State Government had replied that the issue was being studied by it.

She also said that she had written a letter to Mr. Pawar to bring to his notice the inaccuracy of the statement he had made in the Lok Sabha. These clarifications, however, did not satisfy the Opposition.

At this stage, Mr. Antony said the farmers of the State had never known so daunting a crisis. The State Government, in its memorandum submitted to the Centre in April this year, had described their difficulties in graphic detail.

"We have stretched the usual norms to help them. Compensation for crop loss has been doubled and it is being extended to 38 items of crops now. A one-year moratorium on recovery of loans was announced and the Government will pay the interest on the loans during this period. The banks have also been asked to waive penal interest on outstanding farm loans. We have also asked the Centre to write off all farm loans up to a sum of Rs. 50,000," he said.

Mr. Achuthanandan repeatedly intervened to ask Mr. Antony to `come to the real point'. The States of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka did not `hide' the facts from the Centre and they would surely benefit from it, while no aid would reach the farmers of Kerala, he said. Mr. Antony said everyone expected the Leader of the Opposition to `behave with more decorum' in the House.

He said the Government would be sending a delegation, consisting of the Ministers for Finance, Revenue and Agriculture, to New Delhi immediately to press for Central assistance to help the debt-ridden farmers. "The LDF MPs from the State too should lend their support to us," he added.

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