All farmers suicides are not due to debts: D K Shivakumar

TNN
July 26, 2018

Bengaluru, Jul 26: Water resources and medical education minister D K Shivakumar on Wednesday stirred a controversy when he claimed several farmer suicides in the state could be due to personal reasons.

“If a farmer commits suicide it is not necessarily because he was in debt,” Shivakumar said. “There can be various reasons for a farmer to commit suicide.” His comments come a day after BJP chief B S Yeddyurappa alleged that the state government has been apathetic towards the increasing number of farmer suicides in the state.

Shivakumar also cited an example to support his statement.

“Not all accidents happen because of the driver’s fault,” he said. “Some happen also because of the fault of the driver of the other vehicle.” He said the media should stop reporting farmer suicides as it only encourages more farmers to take extreme step.

His remarks sparked instant criticism from the BJP and farmer organisations, which said it exposed the ruling party’s “insensitivity” towards farmers’ plight. “How can a minister, who is the custodian of farmers’ issues make such an insensitive statement?” questioned a BJP member. “Officials or NGOs making such remarks is acceptable but not a minister.”

Mahadayi dispute

The state government is expecting a favourable verdict from the Mahadayi Water Dispute Tribunal which it is expected to deliver its decision next month, Shivakumar said. “The government has given all the documents including photographs on the amount of water used by Goa to the tribunal to seek justice,” Shivakumar said.

The minister was speaking in the wake of a team of officials from Goa visiting Karnataka’s Kanakumbi village, located in the Malaprabha basin adjoining the state’s border, and alleging that Karnataka was already diverting and using Mahadayi water.

Rubbishing the charges, Shivakumar said Karnataka has not been utilising the water from Mahadayi and sought evidence from Goa.

Comments

Farooq
 - 
Thursday, 26 Jul 2018

D K Sivakumar wants to loot more money from farmers' loan waiving plan.

 

NB: Raid On Karnataka Minister DK Shivakumar Finds 300 Crores 'Undisclosed Income': Sources (reported in 2017)

Mohan
 - 
Thursday, 26 Jul 2018

Media reports never encourage farmers to do extreme steps. Media showing the plight. If media dont report such things then govt wont listen or wont take any action.. even govt wont know such incidents

Ramprasad
 - 
Thursday, 26 Jul 2018

Sivakumar, 95% of farmers are commiting suicide due to debts. They wont do for pleasure. Please dont utter rubbish statements

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News Network
June 19,2020

Bengaluru, Jun 18: Former Karnataka Chief Minister and Congress leader Siddaramaiah has accused the BJP-led government of not passing the benefit of the low price of crude to the common man and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take steps to bring down prices of petroleum products.

Hitting out at the BJP-led government, he termed it as "opportunistic" and said the price of petroleum products were being increased when people were facing difficulties due to COVID-19.

"It is very disheartening to witness and unprecedented opportunistic government which is trying to extract every pound and flesh from the common man, that too when the whole country is suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic. This is in the backdrop of the continuous price hike in the last 10 days," said the letter was written on Wednesday.

The Congress leader said that the policy decisions taken by the government "with respect to managing fuel sources are inconsistent with the prudent measures generally adopted".

"When the price of crude oil was remarkably low in March, April and May 2020, your government was very reluctant to pass on the benefits to the people by reducing the fuel prices proportionately, but, instead, your government continued to capitalise by increasing the excise duty," he said.

He said the government had also "failed" in the last six years to increase the oil storage capacity which could have been used for the country's advantage when the international crude oil price fell really low.

He said the government should roll back the excise duty and help in the reduction of fuel prices.

"The reduced burden will help the common man to have additional money in hand that will be spent on essential goods and services which will ultimately help them tide over these difficult times," he said.

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coastaldigest.com news network
July 1,2020

Mangaluru, July 1: Even as the number of covid-19 positive cases is mounting with every passing day in the region, the Dakshina Kannada district recorded three new deaths due to coronavirus within 24 hours. 

According to sources, a septuagenarian from Bhatkal breathed his last on Wednesday afternoon. He was suffering from diabetes, high blood pressure and battling respiratory illness and pneumonia. His swab was collected and sent for test and the result came as positive.

Earlier in the day, two people had died in Mangaluru due to covid-19: A 31-year-old youth from Bhatkal and a 78-year-old man from Bengre in the city.

The coastal district has witnessed seven deaths from Sunday due to coronavirus.

The 31-year-old man, who was battling health issues due to high blood pressure, breathed his last at a private hospital. His swab was collected after his death. The report came as corona-positive.

The elderly man from Bengre was suffering from diabetes and pneumonia. He passed away at a private hospital.

With this, the total number of death of covid patients in the district reached to 17. Among them two people died due to non-covid reasons.

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coastaldigest.com news network
May 19,2020

Mangaluru/Mysuru, May 19: Though the Karnataka government permitted the private buses, operators in Dakshina Kannada district have decided not to operate buses until May end. In Mysuru district too the private buses remained off the roads.

Dakshina Kannada Bus Owners’ Association President Dilraj Alva said “Technically, private bus operators are not able to operate services as all of us have surrendered our permits. If we start services we will have to pay the tax for entire month. Hence, we have decided to resume bus services from June 1.”

The private buses had suspended their services since March 24.

In addition, bus owners also have two more demands which the state government needs to consider on priority, he said.

“We have requested the government to exempt private buses from paying tax for the next six months. We were not plying buses during lockdown and it will be tough for us in the next three months to operate as per new conditions.”

“The government has allowed only 30 persons in each bus to maintain social distancing. In addition, we have been urging the state government for bus fare revision since 2013. The government has revised the bus fares of KSRTC twice after that,” Alva said adding that bus owners will be meeting Mangaluru RTO on Tuesday.

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