Chandigarh: Even as suicides by farmers’ are on rise and the issue has caught national attention, a minister in Haryana government has put his foot solidaly in his mouth by declaring these farmers were cowards’.
Haryana Agriculture Minister OP Dhankar on Wednesday said, “Suicide is a crime as per Indian law.”
He further said the government could not support farmers who commit suicide, as they were criminals under the law. Farmers who commit suicide are running away from their responsibilities and leaving their families and children with liabilities, he has said.
The Haryana government, in its special girdawari report till April 22, has assessed crop damage to over 13 lakh acres in the state because of untimely rains and hailstorm.
Out of which, 3.17 lakh acres was hit with crop loss between 76 and 100 per cent, 1.92 lakh acres with crop loss between 51 and 75 per cent and 8.24 lakh acres between 25 and 50 per cent.
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had on Tuesday announced compensation of Rs 1,092 crore to farmers affected by inclement weather conditions, to be disbursed by May 15.
Of the total amount, Rs 720 crore will be provided by the Centre while the rest will be given by the state government, he said.
Khattar alleged that just Rs 18 crore was disbursed among farmers in year 2011-12 followed by Rs 47 crore in 2012-13 and Rs 95 crore in 2013-14.
“In 2014-15, Rs 243 crore was given to farmers after we (BJP) came to power. We released Rs 22 crore for crop loss in September 2013 and Rs 97 crore for the loss in March 2014 after coming to power.
“There had been delay of two years in disbursing compensation amount to affected farmers,” he said.
“During the previous regime, compensation was not released even by concerned deputy commissioners. So you can very well imagine what would have been the kind of governance at that time,” he told reporters.
Asked to comment on giving compensation to families of farmers who had allegedly committed suicide because of crop loss, Khattar said it was very difficult to find the actual reasons behind anyone taking this extreme step.
“It is always painful if somebody dies. It is difficult to know the reasons of one committing suicide which may be because of old debt, poor financial condition,” he said.
