Minister faces flak for 'farmer suicide' view

Bengaluru, NT Bureau: Reacting to Minister Shivanand Patil’s remark that farmers are committing suicides to claim compensation, farmers expressed their anger and demanded that the Congress government led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah remove him from the cabinet.

The minister allegedly made the remark while addressing the media in Haveri, where he said the number of suicides has increased since 2015 and one of the reasons might be increased compensation.

“Check the number of cases before and after 2015. We started compensating them with Rs 5 lakh after 2015 and since then, the cases have increased. It is human nature to try and get the compensation and poor people try to get the money by reporting such cases”, Patil said.

However, he added that the farmers who died over debts will continue to get the compensation.

“Around 500 died in 2020 and 595 in 2021, followed by 651 and 412 in 2022 and 2023, respectively. It shows only a few cases are genuine after the investigations”, he said.

Saying that the minister had made an irresponsible statement, the farmers said they would offer Rs 50 lakh and asked whether the minister would be ready to commit suicide.