BENGALURU: Meriavva (50 ) from the scheduled caste community in Gadag district, who defaulted on her monthly loan repayments due to crop failure, committed suicide.
Meriavva’s case is among hundreds of cases documented by KPCC Kissan and Keth Mazdur cell chairman Sachin Meega in 2016 with an objective to identify root causes behind the niggling problem of farmer suicides. “Mere waiving of loans will not stop farmers from committing suicide,’’ he asserted while responding to reports of farmer suicides post-announcement of the farm loan waiver scheme.
Since 2015, Sachin has visited homes of 876 farmers who committed suicide after failing to clear loans. A discussion on farmer suicides at a meeting convened by KPCC motivated him to launch a fact-finding mission. He had travelled about 25,000 km covering 28 districts.
“There are 15 recommendations in my report on preventing farmer suicides, submitted to AICC Chief Rahul Gandhi and PM Narendra Modi, holds good even today,’’ Sachin asserted. “No farmer is benefited in the present insurance scheme,’’ he said.
In instances of borewell failures, Sachin had recommended that government agencies should sink borewells and government should bear the cost when the sunk borewell does not yield water.
CBI probing crop insurance scheme: Meega
Meega said based on his complaint against the Prime Minister, the CBI had begun investigation into irregularities in the crop insurance scheme, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bhima Yojana. Meega told TNIE that his complaint against PM was not accepted initially. On attaching reports of Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General), CBI registered a case in November 2017.