Citing a series of farmer suicides in the State in a month or so, the Congress has blamed the Government for playing ignorance over farm distress. The party apart from pointing towards bank loans for the incidents also said that fake seeds given to the farmers are adding to their woes.
Addressing a press conference on Tuesday senior party leader and former Ranchi MP Subodh Kant Sahay said the Government machinery is paying no heed to their hardships.
“As many as seven farmers have committed suicides this year in no time. All of them were under financial distress due to farm loan or failure of crop. Worse is that the seeds distributed to them by the Government agencies have proven fake that has been ascertained by local administration as well. In this scenario what else the farmers would do,” said Sahay.
He also presented a whole list of farmers who ended their lives in the recent times and went on referring to pending dues of crop insurance, insufficient pricing of their produces and prevalence of middlemen into the system.
“Crop insurance is nothing but a farce. Farmers have not been paid for the last year. They are not getting profitable pricing of their produces and middlemen are looting them. There is no trace of natural disaster fund in the State. In all this the Government is not even able to handle the food grains kept in its godowns. We can understand under what circumstances the farmer community of the State is living,” said the former Union Minister.
Adding further, he said that his party is not going to sit back on these issues but organise protests and agitations against the deeds and policies of the Government. “We are visiting all the places and villages where the farmers have committed suicides and saw the situation on our own. Series of agitations would take place and the party would also raise the issue in the upcoming Assembly session,” said Sahay.