People's Democracy
(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
No.
04
January 22, 2012
|
Vol. XXXVI
No.
04 January 22, 2012 |
Spate of Farmers’ Suicide in
Disaster Looming Large
From Our Special
Correspondent in 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 of an increase in input prices and non-remunerative prices. Both of these phenomenon, the increase in input prices and a fall in the prices 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
never
protested.
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 coun
try since 1995,
-----------
-------------------------------------
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
