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Crop failure claimed only one life in 9 years: Gujarat govt -Vijaysinh Parmar

-The Times of India


RAJKOT: Only one farmer committed suicide in Gujarat because of crop failure between 2003 and 2012! This is what the Gujarat government wants people to believe despite the furore over farmer suicides in the state.

This came out in the form of a letter from Union agriculture ministry to RTI activist Bharatsinh Zala on the direction from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). Zala had sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's intervention in cases where farmers committed suicide.

He had asked for Rs 5 lakh compensation for families of farmers who committed suicide due to agrarian crisis in 2012, especially because of drought.

"I was shocked when I read the letter saying that Gujarat government has reported only one suicide due to agrarian reasons while the number of those ending their lives because of non-agrarian reasons is 668. This clearly shows misrepresentation of facts," Zala told TOI. The letter from the ministry states that agriculture including agricultural indebtedness is a state subject under the Constitution.

Zala claimed that farmer suicides are much higher as revealed in replies to his RTI applications. "In 2012 alone, 42 farmers committed suicides due to crop failure, indebtedness and related issues. Moreover, 20 FIRs on suicides mentioned the same reasons for the farmers taking the extreme step," said Zala.

"The responses to our RTI applications say that 567 farmers committed suicide between 2003 and 2007 and another 135 did so between 2008 and 2012. In many cases, the real reason behind suicide by farmers was deliberately not mentioned,'' claimed Zala.