Never late in pouncing on a subject to convert it into a political issue, the main Opposition party in the State Congress on Sunday said that suicides by the States peasants constitute a matter of grave concern.
Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) President and former Union minister Arun Yadav while talking to the media persons here on Sundayb said, “A nightmarish drought situation prevails and that is ceaselessly instigating farmers to take the extreme step. The regime declared only 114 tehsils as drought-affected. There was an announcement that `515 crore will be doled out as insurance for last years crop damage. It shall prove to be a pittance as Rs10,000 crore worth of crops were ravaged."
He said the suicides by the debt ridden farmers in the state due to various reasons including crop damage, drought, frost, hailstorms and excessive rains exposes the apathetic attitude of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government of state towards farmers. The series of suicides by the farmers in the state is not coming to an end and it is all due to the apathetic attitude of the BJP government of the state towards the debt ridden farmers who are left with no other option than to take on the extreme step of giving up their lives, he added.
Quoting a recent report of the National Crime Records Bureau, he said that a whopping 5,650 ryots ended their lives last year in the country and the states figure was 826.
"In this month alone, more than 20 farmers killed themselves. Madhya Pradesh has the dubious distinction of being at third spot in this grim context.
The Centre's predecessor Manmohan Singh dispensation provided Rs 1,584.69 crore to the Madhya Pradesh State Cooperative Bank and the Madhya Pradesh State Agriculture and Rural Development Bank through the medium of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development for waiver of farmers loans. A component of `200 crore was gobbled up by a scam," he alleged.