Farmer suicides on rise in Cong- ruled states: Shah

He was clearly out on a mission to reach out to the farmers of Karnataka. And losing no time BJP national president, Amit Shah painted the state's Congress government in the worst possible light while eulogising his party's contribution to the welfare of farmers here on Tuesday.

Coming down hard on the Siddaramaiah government over the suicide of farmers in Karnataka, he said BJP- ruled states like Gujarat , Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh had in contrast recorded the lowest number of farmer suicides in the country.

“Besides, in Maharashtra, where the Congress was thrown out three years ago, the number of farmer suicides has come down by over 30 per cent. Farmer suicides go up in states where the Congress comes to power. In Karntaka over 3500 farmers have committed suicide in Karnataka over the last four years. The only reason for a farmer to commit suicide is government's apathy. By contrast, the agriculture GDP of BJP- ruled states is always in double digit or more,” he added.

The BJP national president, who was participating in his party’s ` Mushti Dhanya Abhiyana' a movement to collect a fistful of grains from farmers, in Doddabaathi village, maintained the Modi government had several pro- farmer policies and on assessing the base price of agriculture production, would soon announce crop loss compensation of one- and- ahalf times the production cost.

He revealed a ` 500 crore R and D centre was on the anvil to disseminate information about health issues caused by consumption of arecanut and coffee, and another R and D Centre was in the offing to work on diseases afflicting the coconut crop.