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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Farmers' kin upset over West Bengal's refusal to acknowledge suicides by Ananya Dutta

Farmers' kin upset over West Bengal's refusal to acknowledge suicides by Ananya Dutta

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published Published on Feb 2, 2012   modified Modified on Feb 2, 2012

“Believe me, I am not making any of this up,” insists Asim Saha brother of Amiya Saha, who killed himself after consuming a bottle of pesticide a month ago after failing to find buyers for the paddy he had harvested, when he speaks of the events that occurred on the fateful night and the paddy that remains unsold at their home in Rajpur village in the West Bengal's Bardhaman district.

The kin of the farmers who have taken their lives (31 incidents have been reported since October 21 in Bardhaman district alone) not only have to reconcile with their loss, but also have to bear with the apathy of the State, which refuses to acknowledge their plight.

“My brother was overwhelmed with anxiety over the sale of the paddy. Last years potato crop was sold at throwaway prices and the rice mills were refusing to buy the paddy from this season's harvest. But after he died, there were some people who tried to say that he killed himself because he suffered from a kidney disease,” said Mr. Saha, without mentioning who the rumour-mongers were.

The wife of Bhootnath Pal, a farmer who tilled three bighas (about an acre) of land in Kauri village and hung himself on January 28, pores over all documents from a file that her husband used to maintain – some not even pertaining to the nearly Rs. 9,000 that he owed to a bank in the form of a farm loan.

“I have nothing to hide,” she asserts. When neighbours peep into a silo where grain lies unsold to estimate how much may be inside, she is quick to point out that it is lined with hay at the bottom because she would not like “to exaggerate anything.”

With every incident the Left parties in the Opposition as well as ally Congress is turning the screws on the Trinamool Congress for failing to address the problems of the farmers. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has responded by claiming that “it is all propaganda of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)” and that “among all those incidents reported there is only one farmer.”

“At a time like this, the government is not standing by the farmers. When one transport employee committed suicide, the State Government did a turnaround on the announcement of withdrawal of subsidies from the sector. So many farmers have killed themselves, but the government does not care,” Mr. Saha said.

While district officials have offered temporary relief to the families (150 sacks of Amiya Saha's paddy was sold to rice mills as a part of a special quota and Bhootnath Pal's wife was given Rs. 5,000 from the BDO's office), they maintain that these incidents cannot be counted as farmer suicides.

However, they admit that there is an inadequacy of institutional debt in the region and local moneylenders and middlemen continue their hold over farmers in the region. They also rue the lack of information among the farmers about agricultural loans from banks.

A mahajan (moneylender) can charge up to five per cent per monthly interest on the sums they give out, which amounts to 60 per cent interest annually. In contrast, farmers can avail loans at seven per cent from banks and if they repay the loan in the first year, the next year's loan will be available at four per cent. But most farmers do not know about these schemes, a district official said.

“You do not need to ask me about what my problems are. Everyone in the village knows them and are facing the same issues,” said the father of 20-year-old Prosenjit Mondal, who hung himself from a tree after a disagreement with his father.


The Hindu, 2 February, 2012, http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article2852281.ece


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