Karnataka   

‘Emulate Kerala model to tackle suicide by farmers’

– Photo: K. Murali Kumar

Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan with writer U.R. Ananthamurthy (centre) and CPI(M) leader V.J.K. Nair in Bangalore on Sunday.

BANGALORE: Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achutanandan on Sunday urged the Centre to enact a national farmers’ debt relief commission legislation to facilitate setting up of a commission for providing relief to debt-ridden farmers in the country on the lines of the Kerala model.

Speaking at a function organised here to mark the former Kerala Chief Minister E.M.S. Namboodiripad Government’s golden jubilee celebrations, Mr. Achutanandan said the Kerala Government was planning to launch a campaign to persuade the Centre to come out with such a legislation as part of the efforts to prevent suicide by farmers. He pointed out that the LDF Government headed by him in Kerala had enacted such a legislation and constituted Kerala Farmers’ Debt Relief Commission. The commission was taking steps to redress debt-related problems of farmers. He said that his Government had been formed when 1,500 debt-ridden farmers had committed suicide in the State during the regime of the previous United Democratic Government. His Government had written off the outstanding bank loans of those farmers who had committed suicide and also paid a compensation of Rs. 50,000 to their kin. To put an end to this, his Government had announced a moratorium on repayment of loans of other farmers in addition to setting up the commission.

Mr. Achutanandan said that his Government was taking steps to revive the industrial and IT sectors. The main concern of the LDF Government was to provide jobs to lakhs of educated unemployed youth in Kerala by roping in more number of industries in various sectors, including information technology. It had succeeded in triggering an IT boom by implementing the Smart City Project. Many companies were stepping in to develop IT infrastructure in Kerala. The Government had started purchasing land for setting up IT infrastructure in various parts of the State.

Criticising the UDF Government, he said that it had decided to sell the prestigious Infopark of Kerala to a Dubai-based company. However, his Government had managed to ensure that 40,000 jobs were created in Infopark alone. This was in addition to the creation of 90,000 jobs in Smart City.

He said the Communist party Government headed by Namboodiripad, which was formed in 1957 in Kerala, had approached problems from the angle of poor and downtrodden. Jnanpith Award winner U.R Ananthamurthy and writer Baragur Ramachandrappa spoke.

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