The Karnataka government will compensate the families of all farmers who have killed themselves since April 2015, regardless of the government's classification of their suicide.
Home Minister G. Parameshwar on Tuesday said that the state government will provide monetary compensation of Rs 5 lakh to families of all farmers who have committed suicide, without assessing if the suicides were related to crop issue.
Last year was the worst year in terms of farmer suicides in the state with 978 ending their lives between April and December.
Farmer groups and activists have been saying that the government’s classification of farmer suicides was faulty and that all farmers who committed suicide should be compensated.
“Officers have reported that in many cases farmers committed suicide for reasons not related to agrarian crisis. But, the government has decided to provide relief cheque of Rs.5 lakh to the families of all those who committed suicide. We will not go into reasons which forced them to take such an extreme step,” Home Minister G. Parameshwar told The Hindu speaking at a programme organised by the district administration in Chikkamagalur.
The State government has increased the relief amount in case of farmers’ suicide to Rs. 5 lakh from Rs.2 lakh.
“We can’t bring back those committed suicide. The money we give may help the families,” he added.
The News Minute in October had previously reported that at least one farmer has committed suicide in every district of Karnataka in 2015.