A farmer from Pithoragarh committed suicide on Friday being unable to clear the loans he had taken from a bank around five years ago, landing the Trivendra Singh Rawat Government in embarrassment.
Instead of giving solace to the bereaved family member CM Rawat said that every resident of Uttarakhand has loan of Rs 45000 and even he has loan of Rs 11 lakh. With this statement uttarakhand political atmosphere become hot and opposition started criticising the CM Trivendra Singh Rawat and its Government. Although latter he took U-turn and expressed condolence on it. This is particularly so as the suicide happened a few days after the Chief Minister had ruled out waiving off loans of the farmers of the state despite the opposition pressuring the State Government to announce such loan waivers taking cue from what the UP Government has done. It is learnt that the farmer who ended his life had complained of the bank pressuring him to repay the loan. He was depressed fearing that the bank officials would come to his residence to recover the loans, his relatives said.
Notably, the Pithoragarh resident Surendra Singh had taken a loan of Rs 75,000 for agricultural purpose from a cooperative bank based in Purnathal around five years ago. Furthermore, he had taken another loan of Rs 50,000 around four years ago from a rural bank based in Berinaag. His family members said that he had been under the impression that the new government would make some announcement to lighten the loan burden of the farmers. The opposition had raised the issue during the CM’s budget speech. But the CM had declined to announce loan waiver, saying that he would not announce anything that he would not be able to execute.
Soon after the news of the suicide came about Congress activists staged a demonstration and burnt the State Government in its effigy in Derhadun. State Congress chief Preetam Singh said that the incident has exposed the insensitivity of the State Government vis-a-vis the plight of the farmers. “The ruling party has not acted on its election promise of waiving off the farmers’ loans and providing them with interest- free loans,” he said. Expressing her anguish over the farmer’s death, the leader of the opposition Indira Hridayesh said that the responsibility should rest with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had rolled out pompous promises to the farming community while leading the campaign of his party during the Assembly election. “We apprehend that more such suicides would happen in the State in the coming days,” she said.
While speaking of the incident, Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said that the death of the farmer was shocking. “ A Magisterial Inquiry has been ordered. Besides, my Government would provide all possible help to the bereaved family. We are sensitive towards the cause of the farmers. This is why we have decided to provide them with loan to the tune of Rs one lakh at two percent interest rate,” he said.