HAVERI: Minister for Textiles and Sugarcane Development Shivanand Patil’s statement on Tuesday that farmers are committing suicide to get compensation triggered a controversy with some farmers’ organisations and social activists demanding that he be removed as Haveri district in-charge minister.
Addressing reporters here, Patil said compensation is being claimed for those who died of heart attacks.
Compensation is being claimed stating that they committed suicide as they could not repay their loans and because of crop loss.
“When we started giving Rs 5 lakh as compensation, the number of suicide cases went up. An analysis of the suicide cases reported before 2015 and after indicates this. When we started giving more compensation, more such cases were reported. It is natural for one to aspire for compensation and poor people try to get money by reporting natural deaths as cases of suicide,” the minister said.
“In all, 500 such cases were reported in 2020, 595 in 2021, 651 in 2022 and 412 so far this year. The reasons mentioned in the FIRs were not genuine. Only a few are genuine cases,” he said.
Minister should help cultivators, say farmer netas
Some farmer leaders from Haveri said, “Shivanand Patil is a minister and he should not talk lightly about farmers. He should take steps to stop farmers from taking the extreme step. As their elected representative, he should help them overcome their problems. We appeal to him to stop making such irresponsible statements. One should not take others’ problems lightly. We demand that the state government remove him as Haveri district in-charge minister.” Meanwhile, Patil said, “I request the farmers’ organisations to vouch for genuine cases and it is our duty to give compensation.”