In a macabre case of alleged suicide, a distressed debt-ridden sugarcane farmer set fire to the crop he had grown and jumped into the blaze at a village in Mandya district today.
50-year-old Ninge Gowda allegedly committed suicide at Ganadahosuru village as he was unable to pay back debts and did not get remunerative price for the sugarcane crop, police and other officials said.
The distressed farmer, who had taken cooperative and other loans, came to the sugarcane field in the morning, set it on fire and jumped into it, they said.
"...He had taken loan of about Rs 2 lakh; he should have felt he will be unable to pay it, so he might have committed suicide. No one came to take our cane for price he expected...So he has done this...," an inconsolable relative of Gowda said.
Villagers demanded adequate compensation for Gowda's family as they were dependent on him and his son is handicapped.
"Sugarcane is our main source of our life...Such things will happen if government doesn't take necessary steps...His only son is handicapped, he was a poor farmer, proper compensation should be given to lead their life," a villager said.
District administration officials said they will try to give compensation to the farmer's family at the earliest.
"...He was in debt, feeling he will be unable to repay he has committed suicide setting fire to himself along with his crops. We are examining whether he had to get any dues from mills," a district administration official said.
"We have also received information that as there is no crushing taking place at sugar factories, a few farmers had gone to jaggery units where they were quoted less price for their cane. Feeling helpless he has committed suicide," he added.
Former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, who is on protest march from Hubballi to Belagavi in north Karnataka, where state legislature is to meet from Monday to highlight farmers' issues, said, "This is truly a painful incident."
"To avoid such incidents we had made several requests to the Chief Minister to pay attention to issues faced by farmers, especially cane farmers...," he said, and appealed to farmers not to commit suicide.
