Appealing the farmers in the drought-hit areas not to worry over re-payment of their crop loans, Odisha government today claimed not a single peasant ended his life owing to crop loss or debt burden as alleged by the opposition parties.
"We have received allegations of 111 farmers suicides from different districts. Of the 111 cases, joint verification by the police and revenue officials was so far done in 106 incidents. None died due to agricultural crisis as per reports furnished by district collectors," Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) P K Mohapatra told reporters.
Stating that the government was waiting for the report on remaining five alleged suicide cases, Mohapatra appealed the farmers living in the drought-affected areas not to worry over crop loans as the state government has already issued direction to banks not to go for collection now.
"Just forget for the time being that you have incurred crop loans," Mohapatra told the farmers through the media.
The SRC said nationalised banks, cooperative banks and others have been asked by the state government to extend the tenure of loan repayment.
While rejecting the allegation of debt burden as the reason behind farmer suicides, Mohapatra said, "Of the 103 farmer suicide cases, 56 persons had not taken any loan, either from the banks or from private parties.
Mohapatra said 26 deceased farmers had taken loans
from both cooperative banks and other government banks.
Similarly, 16 deceased farmers had taken loans from micro finance institutions and private money lenders. Only five of them had taken loans from banks and private persons, he pointed out.
Though the SRC admitted that some of the deceased farmers had gone for loans from private money lenders, he rejected the allegation that debt burden was one of the factors behind their deaths.
"The collectors' report did not even indicate that crop loss and debt burden were reasons behind the death of farmers," Mohapatra claimed.
Most of the farmer suicides took place due to reasons not related to agriculture, he said, quoting the district collectors' reports.
Meanwhile, the opposition Congress and BJP have been alleging that all 111 farmer suicide cases were due to crop damage and debt burden.
Congress in its white paper on the drought situation has directly blamed the state government for the death of farmers.
"The state government's anti-farmer policy and lack of concern for the farmers' plight forced 111 farmers to commit suicide," OPCC president Prasad Harichandan alleged.
