It is official now that 1,336 farmers committed suicides in Karnataka during 2015. The State Government so far has given compensation to 825 families of farmers committed suicides in the State. Karnataka Minister of State for Agriculture Krishna Byre Gowda said of the 1,336 farmers’ suicide cases in 2015-16, compensation had been paid in 825 cases, relief in 340 cases was rejected owing to inadequate documents submitted by the families, and disbursal of compensation in 171 cases was pending.
Minister said owing to severe drought in 137 taluks of the State, food grain production was expected to decline by 16 lakh tonnes from 126 lakh tonnes in 2014-15.
He also claims the spate of farmers suicides had been declining owing to the government's proactive measures such as counselling farmers by bankers, waiver of interest on crop loans, registration of cases against moneylenders, and disbursement of interest-free loans up to Rs. 2 lakh for farmers.
Alarmed by the spate of suicides by debt-ridden farmers in the state since June 2015, the state government cracked the whip on money lenders, pawn brokers and private financiers who were fleecing the drought-hit farmers for repaying their credit borrowed at high interest rates.
"In addition to compensation and waivers, we are providing free counselling and medical aid to farmers and their families to check rising suicides by their fraternity. As a result, the number of suicides declined drastically to 45 in April from about 150-200 between June and August last year," Gowda said.
The number of suicide cases used to be 150 to 200 a month during June, July, and August 2015, he said, and added that the numbers had declined now owing to timely support by cooperative banks and other agencies.
According to the minister 40 farmers committed suicide in April 2016 and the number of cases in September 2015 was 155, October - 238, November - 130, December - 106, January 2016 - 92, February - 65, and March - 52.