GULBARGA: One more sugarcane-growing farmer has committed suicide taking the number of such suicides to four this year because of the factories' failure to lift sugarcane from the fields.

Basavaraj Siddaramappa Biradar (45) hanged himself to death in his sugarcane field at Narayanpur in Jewargi taluk of Gulbarg district on Monday. Two farmers from Bidar and one from Jamkhandi taluk in Bagalkot district had committed suicide earlier.

Gulbarga District Raita Horata Samiti president and Janata Dal (S) leader Kedarlingaiah Hiremath, Jewargi Taluk Raita Horata Samiti president S.S. Salagar, Jewargi Taluk Sugarcan Growing Farmers' Association president Prakash Patil and farmers' leader Shivalingappa Veershetty told presspersons that the Basvaraj Sidaramappa Biradar who had committed suicide was a small farmer with five acres of land in Narayanpur village and had grown sugarcane on three acres of land.

Frustration

They said the only reason for the farmer to take the extreme step was the failure of the Renuka Sugar Factory at Havalga to lift the sugarcane from his field for cutting and the private moneylenders from whom he had taken loan and the Krishna Grameen Bank and DCC Bank Gulbarga had started exerting pressure on the victim to repay the Rs. 1.5 lakh taken as loan.

Mr. Hiremath said the farmer had visited the factory several times pleading with the authorities concerned to lift the cane.

Blaming the district administration for the suicide by farmer, Mr. Hiremath said that the Deputy Commissioner, who was given instruction by Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy in the April 13 meeting in Bangalore to ensure that the factory took up the crushing of sugarcane grown by the small farmers on priority, had failed to implement this direction and in Jewargi taluk not even a single tonne of sugarcane grown by small farmers was harvested.

He said despite the factory's failure to stand by its assurance given in the meeting in front of the Chief Minister that it would take up crushing of the sugarcane grown by the small farmers on priority, the district administration had so far not issued even a single notice to the factory nor reported the non-compliance of the directions of the Chief Minister in this regard to the State Government and the Chief Minister.

He said of 1.5 lakh tonnes of sugarcane grown in Jewargi taluk, only about 15,000 tonnes of sugarcane had been crushed by the factory, that too because of the initiatives taken by farmers to cut the crop and transport it on their own to the factory.

Another 35,000 tonnes of sugarcane had been used for manufacturing the jaggery. As per the estimate, over one lakh tonnes of sugarcane grown in Jewargi would remain uncrushed after the season.

Compensation sought

Mr. Hiremath said the Chief Minister, taking into consideration the distress condition of sugarcane growers, should pay a compensation of Rs 500 per tonne of uncrushed sugarcane after April 30 and start the disbursement of the compensation to save the farmers.

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