JOIN USDebt-ridden rubber farmer commits suicide
A farmer has committed suicide on Friday night, having been unable to repay the loans borrowed from a cooperative bank for his rubber plantation.
C C Joseph (58), of Beesinapare in Jadkal of Kollur police station, is the deceased.
Joseph has grown rubber on his 1.3-acre land and had borrowed Rs one lakh from a cooperative bank. Although he had been paying the interest, the pending amount to be cleared was Rs 78,000.
Joseph had also borrowed money for the wedding of his daughter. Owing to financial constraints, the construction work of his house had been halted. The steep fall in the price of rubber had only made things worse for the farmer.
Former Union Minister M Veerappa Moily, Minister for Urban Development and District In-charge Minister Vinay Kumar Sorake and others met and consoled the family members of the deceased farmer outside the government hospital at Kundapur on Saturday.
Moily, who spoke to reporters, said that rubber cultivators are in distress owing to the steep fall in the price in the market.
‘Help needed’“The Centre should hike the import duty on rubber to protect the domestic market.
When the UPA government was in power, it had hiked the import duty on rubber and arecanut, to help the growers. The Central government should announce an interim compensation for the rubber growers. The crop policy should be revised by the government,” suggested the former minister.
Vinay Kumar Sorake said that the family of the deceased will be given a helping hand by the government.
The fall in the price of rubber has affected the farmers, he concurred. “In spite of fall in the price of natural rubber, the price of tyres and rubber products in the market has not declined.
“The Centre should come to the rescue of the rubber growers,” he urged.