-TheWire.in Out of the 144 recorded farmer suicides, over 40 were from outside the Cauvery delta region. Observers and farmers directly attribute demonetisation as one major factor behind the suicides. Tamil Nadu is facing one of its worst agrarian crises since independence. All of the state’s 32 districts have been officially declared as ‘drought-affected’. In a statement issued on January 10, chief minister O. Panneerselvam announced that the move was necessitated following...
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Between 2014 & 2015, farm suicides rise by 2 percent
The Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) election manifesto for 2014 Lok Sabha election says that if elected to the Centre, it will then "(p)ut in place welfare measures for farmers above 60 years in age, small and marginal farmers and farm labours", among other things. Despite the formation of a BJP led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre in 2014, the latest available data on farm suicides from the...
More »It Will Take More than a Loan Waiver for Punjab's Farmers to Stop Killing Themselves -Devinder Sharma
-TheWire.in Congress and AAP aim to write off farm loans if they come to power in Punjab. But such measures will only be useful only if accompanied by policy reforms like a sustainable farming system and assured monthly income for farmers. Nirmal Singh, the leader of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ekta) from Sangrur district in Punjab, committed suicide last week. He was among the few farmer leaders who campaigned against the emerging...
More »Agrarian Riots: The Countryside is Burning -Abeer Kapoor
-HardNewsMedia.com A lack of jobs and an abundant workforce have meant that the agrarian states of India have become tinderboxes waiting to catch fire Statistics released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)’s annual report, “Crime in India”, reveal that in 2015, the number of ‘agrarian riots’ have increased by a whopping 327 percent. The number of cases of ‘agrarian rioting’ increased from 628 to 2,683 in one year. The bulk of...
More »Farm-loan waiver: A political masterstroke, but economically not prudent -Sanjeeb Mukherjee, Amit Agnihotri & Archis Mohan
-Business Standard The efficacy of farm debt waivers is ambiguous, but it has proved to be a potent potent weapon in the run-up to elections With elections round the corner in agrarian states of Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, his party’s Punjab chief ministerial candidate Amarinder Singh and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal are trying to woo farmers of the two states with promises of farm...
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