Farmer suicide cases: A shame to the state

Coming back from home after the semester break, I was filled with a lot of enthusiasm and was looking forward about getting back to Bhopal. But getting the news of farmer suicides in the state, all my plans and the zeal was shattered away. I was taken aback, when I heard the irresponsible statements of the agriculture minister Ramkrishna Kusmariya about the suicides. The farmers are committing suicides in the very assembly constituency of the agriculture minister and the minister is still very indifferent, as if he has got nothing to do with that.

More shameful is the attitude of the government who claims about the developments going on in the state and calls it as the Swarnim Madhya Pradesh. But the claims won’t do, what the datas and figures suggest is worth noticing. The state is at the top position in the malnutrition, is this development? The women atrocities are maximum in the state, is this development? The farmers come to the state capital and jam the roads, take the city to a stand still, for just getting their authentic demands met, is that development? The basic thing here is that the farmers came here in such large numbers with an aggressive way to get the attention of the government towards there problems. So the question here arises that why did they opt for this? Because they tried to bring their problems to the attention of the officers, ministers and the government a number of times but it was never given any attention, which compelled them to come go for such protest.

In these farmer suicide cases, the reason is the burden of debt which they are unable to repay, losses due to frost which destroyed the crops, but was never compensated by the government. It’s ridiculous that in a state like Madhya Pradesh, the debt ridden farmers are committing suicide which is stated a state working for the development.

The question which arises now is not why the farmers committed suicide, but what are the plans and announcements of the government after these cases and up to what extent they have been implemented to stop these suicidal cases as, the cases are not coming to an end. There is a need to give a serious thought over the issue.