89 farmers have committed suicide: Gujarat Government

AHMEDABAD: The State government which has been claiming that no farmer in Gujarat has committed suicide has admitted that in the state 89 farmers have committed suicide in the state since 2010. However of these 11 suicide were directly related to failure of crop of increase in debt due to farmer.
In reply to the question of Viramgam MLA Tejashreeben Patel, the state government said that of the 11 death in three and half years there were three suicide related to increase in depth due to agriculture, while another eight death were due to increase in debt and 78 suicides were due to other reasons.The Government has stated that no farmers had committed suicide due to crop failure.
The Government said that the three suicide which were committed due to increasing in debt due to Agriculture one each death was reported from Amreli, Bhavnagar and Surat district. These three suicides occurred in seven months of July. Also due to increase in debt the eight death were reported from three from Jamnagar, two from Porbandar and one each from Surendranagar, Gandhinagar and Dang.
The officials said refusing to quote said in 2014 there was a delay in the rains and the farmers who had gone in for early sowing were forced to commit suicide. Similarly the other eight deaths which were reported due to increase in debt was because the farmers were getting money from private lenders instead of going to the banks.
However, farmers union refusing to be quoted said that these eight debt were also directly related to the agriculture as the farmer is forced to borrow money if he does not good income of his produce. Also of the 78 suicide deaths also the government has tried to divert it to other issues. “One should go and inquire each case and they will find out that all the deaths were due to increase in debt of the farmers due to failure of crop.”