KOLKATA: IT has been eight months since the
Trinamool Congress-led government has assumed office in West Bengal. And, in
the last three and a half months alone over 22 farmers in the state have
committed suicide due to debt-related problems, which is again a result ofan
increase in input prices and non-remunerative prices. Both of these phenomenon,
the increase in input prices and a fall in theprices of the crops, are a result
of the policies adopted by the central as well as the state government.
The input prices have increased because the
central government, following its policies of neo-liberal reforms, has slashed
the fertilizer subsidy because of which in some cases the prices of fertilizers
have increased by more than 100 per cent in the last one year. The TMC leader
and the current CM was part of the union cabinet that took the decision to
increase the prices of fertilizers and she neverprotested. With such a huge
increase in prices of fertilizers, the money invested by the farmers had to
increase, because of which they had to borrow money from the market. All this
was done with the hope that the prices of the crops will be remunerative enough
to give the farmers a positive return on the investment with which they could
meet the loan and other expenses. But this did not happen. For example, last
year the Minimum Support Price (MSP) announced by the central government for a
quintal of rice was Rs. 1050.
The erstwhile Left Front government announced a
bonus of Rs 50 per quintal so that the farmers received Rs 1100 per quintal of
rice. This year the central government has announced an MSP of Rs 1080 per
quintal. But the current TMC-led government has not announced any bonus for the
farmers. As a result, the farmers are getting a price which is lower than what
they got last year. The same story applies for jute farmers too. The MSP for
jute was set at Rs 1675 per quintal. The state government however did not take
any initiative to ensure that the Jute Corporation of India sets up procurement
centres in the state to buy jute from the farmers. In the absence of jute
procurement centres, the farmers were forced to sell their crops under distress
and in the process ended up making huge debts from local money lenders and
banks. The plight of the potato farmers followed a similar story. With bumper
harvest of potato and the state government doing nothing to prevent price
crash, the price of potato has decreased to 20 paisa per kg because of which
the farmers are getting zero return on their investment.
The rate of suicide of the peasants has
increased sharply in the recent past. In fact, it has become almost a daily
occurrence. The first such incident came to light on October 17, 2011 when
Dhana Tudu, a tribal agricultural labourer, committed suicide in Burdwan. In the
following 115 days, 21 more followed suit. Burdwan district, the ‘rice bowl’ of
the state, bore the brunt most severely. 15 of the dead farmers are from that
district alone. In Maldah, 3 peasants committed suicide while 2 took their
lives in Bankura. One each from Japaiguri and Hooghly also took their life
under duress.
While the agrarian sector of the state is
clearly under severe distress, the government and the chief minister are on a
total denial mode.The CM has gone on record to say that there has been no
debt-related farmer suicides in the state. This is the familiar story which has
been repeated thousand times in the killing fields of Vidharbha and Andhra
Pradesh. Now, the CM has joined this league, dumping the so called
maa-mati-manush of West Bengal. What is even more shameful is that far from
assuring farmers that their interests will be protected, the government is
spending crores of rupees on a beach festival at Digha, organising conferences
for the business houses etc. This completely exposes the utter disregard that
the TMC-led government has for the plight of the poor people in the state. The
leader of the opposition, Dr. Surjya Kanta Mishra has condemned such
callousness of the government and has demanded that compensation be paid to the
farmers who have committed suicide, like in the cases of the AMRI fire incident
and the hooch tragedy. The sensible democratic people of West Bengal will not
tolerate such apathy towards them and in the coming days will intensity the
struggle against such anti-people policies of the government.
CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, who was
in Kolkata attending the central committee meeting, termed these suicides as
‘manmade disaster’. He alleged that the farmers have become debt-ridden due to
policies of the central and state governments.Though more than 2.55 lakh
farmers committed suicide in the country since 1995, West Bengal had bucked the
trend. That was possible because of the support rendered by the Left Front
government to farmers. But in the last eight months, the TMC-led government has
failed to protect the peasantry. Karat also mentioned that LDF government in
Kerala could successfully halt the mass suicides in Wayanad when it took over
from the UDF in 2006. Now with the UDF back, in the last one and half months
alone, there were at least seven cases of farmer suicides in that state.
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List of farmers who
committed suicides in WB
(till January 17, 2012 )
S.No Name
District Date
1. Dhana Tudu, Burdwan, 12.10.2011
2.
Sambhu Das, Burdwan, 14.10.2011
3.
Budhi Tudu, Burdwan, 16.10.2011
4.
Madhai Ghosh, Burdwan, 6.11.2011
5.
Bhabani Porel, Burdwan, 15.11.2011
6.
Safar Mollah, Burdwan, 18.11.2011
7.
Tarun Shar, Burdwan, 24.11.2011
8.
Nayanmani Pal, Bankura, 7.12.2011
9.
Utpal Goswami, Burdwan, 8.12.2011
10. Barun Pal, Burdwan, 20.12.2011
11. Rabin Barman, Jalpaiguri, 21.12.2011
12. Sushen Ghosh, Burdwan, 28.12.2011
13. Amiya Saha, Burdwan, 1.01.2012
14. Bodhan Hazra, Burdwan, 2.01.2012
15. Arindya Mondal, Maldaha, 7.01.2012
16. Kenaram Sarkar, Maldaha, 7.01.2012
17. Shankar Mandi, Burdwan, 9.01.2012
18. Gopinath Bauri, Bankura, 9.01.2012
19. Haridas Ratna, Maldaha, 12.01.2012
20. Tapas Majhi, Burdwan, 14.01.2012
21. Rabindranath Patra, Burdwan, 15.01.2012
22. Ganesh Durlav, Hooghly, 17.01.2012
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