Karnataka Farm loan burden drives a family to commit suicide

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42-year-old Shekharaiah in Karnataka poisoned his wife and four daughters before committing suicide by hanging himself. The incident took place in Koppal Taluk of Metagal village in Karnataka where the police have registered a case of suicide.

Shekharaiah, a farmer, is believed to have taken the extreme step due to the loan burden. As per reports, local villagers claim that Shekharaiah had borrowed loans worth Rs. 6 lakh from banks and private money-lenders. While the family went to sleep as usual on Friday night, they didn’t wake up till late morning on Saturday. Frightened villagers broke open the door and found them dead.

Karnataka Agriculture minister, N H Shivashankara Reddy, who was incidentally in Koppal for private work, expressed shock at the suicides. As per local reports, the family was distressed due to crop failure.

This takes the farmer suicide toll to eight in Karnataka in a span of weeks. In December, two farmers in Karnataka had committed suicides within five days for not being able to repay the debt.

The Congress party led by Rahul Gandhi who claims to have waived off farm loans in Karnataka has been exposed yet again after series of farmer suicides occurring in the state due to the failure of state government to waive-off these farm loans. Several farmers have also been issued notices after they failed to repay farm loans taken in various banks.

Recently, it was reported that Karnataka state government itself had admitted that Rs 44,000 crore loan waiver had helped only 800 farmers in the state. They had confirmed that only a few of the farmers had benefited from the so-called ‘loan-waiver’.