Farmer suicides in Karnataka spiked after aid hiked to Rs 5 lakh

Minister for Sugar and Agriculture Marketing Shivanand Patil said on Tuesday that cases of farmer suicides started rising after the compensation amount to the kin of the deceased was hiked from
Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh. 

Patil, also the district incharge minister, was addressing a press conference here.          

“Earlier, the compensation amount was Rs 2 lakh. Following recommendations by the Veeresh committee, the compensation amount was hiked to Rs 5 lakh. All deaths of farmers, including those that occur due to heart attacks or suicides due to love failure or in an inebriated state are clubbed as farmer suicides, for the sake of compensation,” Patil said. Many such cases of farmers’ deaths later turn out to be those due to other causes. 

A total of 500 cases of farmer suicide were reported in the state in 2020, while the numbers were 595, 651 and 412 in 2021, 2022 and 2023 so far, respectively, Patil said.  

“The government is ready to provide compensation for genuine cases. The numbers for farmer suicides in Haveri district are 122 and 33, respectively, for 2022-23 and 2023-24,” he said. When asked about compensation not being distributed in 53 cases of suicides in the district in the last 2 years, he said, compensation was being distributed, but added that it was wrong to report the farmers’ death cases as suicides as soon as the FIR is registered. He urged the press not to give wrong information.