Suicide-prone areas to get relief soon

BANGALORE: The UPA government will be coming out with a rehabilitation and relief package to cover farmers in 33 suicide prone districts spread over four states, according to minister of state for commerce Jairam Ramesh.

Mr Ramesh said that the presidents of the pradesh congress committees of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala had met both prime minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. The relief package is expected to be announced on Mr Manmohan Singh’s return from his overseas visit.

“The package which would run into easily a few thousand crores of rupees and will cover six districts of Karnataka, 16 in Andhra Pradesh, six in Maharashtra and three in Kerala.

The package will focus on areas like loan re-scheduling, interest reduction, irrigation, livestocks and agriculture credit,” Mr Ramesh said. Several farmers had committed suicide after crops failed due to a host of factors including drought and use of spurious seeds in recent times.

Faced with the prospects of getting practically no or low returns, most male farmers chose to end their lives consuming insecticides, leaving behind widows, young children and aged parents.

It is this tragedy which also forced the UPA government to moot the National Rural Employment Programme, which would guarantee 100 days of employment for the rural poor.

He said the package for Karnataka would cover the districts of Belgaum, Chitradurga, Shimoga besides the coffee-growing districts of Chikamagalur.