Suicide by two farmers in the past fortnight has created flutter in the State with the Government remaining at the receiving end of the critical glare. The critics are citing Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat having sought to underplay the first incident while saying that every person in Uttarakahand was having a debt burden of Rs 45,000 while he himself was having the debt of Rs 11 lakh.
later, as the Opposition erupted in fierce criticism, dubbing such statements as frivolous, the CM had mellowed a bit by condoling the death and ordering a magisterial inquiry into it.
However, another suicide of a farmer, this time from Khatima in Udham Singh Nagar district, coming close on the heels of the first instance, has left the State Government deeply worried. Plunging into the scene with alacrity, the Opposition Congress leaders, including its State chief Preetam Singh, had visited the victim’s house. Realising that they have been put on the back-foot with Congress stealing the show, a BJP delegation comprising three sitting MlAs — Pushkar Singh Dhami, Prem Singh and Rajkumar Thukral- had visited the residence of the victim.
They had talked to the bereaved family members and let them talk to the CM over phone during which the CM had assured to provide them with a cash assistance to the tune of Rs 5 lakh.
Talking to The Pioneer, Khatima MlA Pushakar Singh Dhami said that aside from the State Government’s announcement of giving Rs 5 lakh to the bereaved family members of Ramawatar, he himself would give Rs 1 lakh as cash help from MlA local area development fund. “The farmer who died with the loan burden of around Rs 10 lakh to Rs 4 lakh from bank and Rs 6 lakh from private financers- on his head, has been survived by seven children, including six daughters. The family really needs cash assistance to tide over the crisis the tragic death has plunged them in,” he added.
With the State Government having announced the financial assistance, State BJP chief Ajay Bhatt was quick to tear into the Congress, slamming it for
playing politics over the dead bodies.
However, unfazed Congress continues to fire salvos at the State Government. Talking to The Pioneer on Wednesday, State Congress vice-president Jot Singh Bisht said that the State Government is choosing to maintain a studied silence over the death of the farmer from Pithoragarh who died first despite announcing a cash assistance for the family of the farmer from Udham Singh Nagar who died a few days after the Pithoragarh-based farmer had died.
Sources said that the farmer from Pithoragarh had ended his life being unable to withstand pressure put by the land grabbers to sell his lands at throwaway prices to clear the pending loans.
The critics say that the State Government should be more serious in stopping such an alarming trend of the farmers embracing noose to get relief from the mounting debt burden.
“Providing palliatives in the form of cash assistance to the bereaved family, though an imperative, might be used as the proverbial fig leaf to hide the real problem. The State Government must delve deeper into the matter to evolve a long-term perspective to stop recurrence of such unfortunate deaths of the farmers. And in case any foul play is found involved in such deaths the guilty must be given exemplary punishment as a deterrent,” says an observer.