‘Farmers’ suicides on rise in India after Modi became PM’

News Network
October 1, 2017

Kalaburgi, Oct 1: Pointing at alarmingly rising farmers’ suicides across the country in the last three years, Maruti Manpade, State president of Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha (KPRS), alleged that intense implementation of liberalisation policies by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi led-Union government had intensified the agrarian crisis.

Addressing a media conference here on Saturday, he said that as per the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 11,772 farmers committed suicide in 2013-14, 12,360 in 2014-15 and 12,602 in 2015-16. “The rise in farmers’ suicides under the BJP government is 26% annually as compared to the previous United Progressive Alliance government. Essentially, economic policies of both Congress and BJP were same - pro-corporate class and anti-people. Under the BJP government, the economic liberalisation gathered a new momentum pushing the farm sector into a deeper crisis.”

Dismissing claims by the Union government of increased lending to the farm sector, Mr. Manpade said the marginal increase in lending was indeed helping agri-business and not the actual cultivators. “It is true that farm lending has marginally increased. But, it is helping only big corporate houses involved in manufacturing of farm equipment such as tractors and other machinery and farm inputs such as seeds, fertilizers and pesticides. A agri-business company can easily borrow Rs. 1 crore from banks. But, it is very difficult for a small farmer to borrow Rs. 1 lakh. We therefore cannot say that that increase in lending to farm sector is helping actual farmers,” he said.

Mr. Manpade criticised the Union government for taking Israel as its role model in agriculture. “Israel is a small country with less than 1 crore population. Its agriculture is basically technology-driven. Ours is a country with 125 crore population and majority are dependent on the farm sector. We need sustainable agriculture which is manpower-driven and not technology-driven.”

Conference

Mr. Manpade announced that the All India Kisan Sabha, a broad conglomerate of farmers’ organisation to which his organisation was affiliated, would hold a four-day national conference starting from October 3 at Hisar in Haryana to analyse the plight of the farm sector and draw the future course of action. Over 900 delegates from 30 States apart from farmers’ representatives from Pakistan, Nepal, China, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and other countries would participate in the event.

 “As the farm crisis is deepening so are the farmers’ agitations intensifying across the country. The Hisar conference would chalk out the future course of action,” he said.

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News Network
May 5,2020

Bengaluru, May 5: A 62-year-old woman from Vijayapura succumbed to coronavirus infection on Tuesday, taking the COVID-19 death toll in Karnataka to 28, a health official said.

The state has registered eight more COVID-19 cases in the past 19 hours, increasing the count of such cases to 659, the official added.

"Positive case 640, 62-year-old female resident of Vijayapura died on Tuesday due to cardiac arrest," the health official said.

Admitted to a designated hospital''s ICU on Sunday, the woman was also suffering from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), Bronchial Asthma (BA) and complained of breathlessness.

Among the eight fresh cases that emerged in the state, four were contacts of earlier cases, two with Influenza Like Illness (ILI) and one with travel history to Uttarakhand.

The health department is also tracing the contact history of a 30-year-old woman from Bengaluru Urban.

Incidentally, no new cases emerged from Davangere as 22 cases rocked the district on Monday.

Among the new cases, Bengaluru Urban contributed 3, followed by Bagalkote, 2, Ballari, Dakshina Kannada and Bhatkal in Uttara Kannada, 1 each.

Of the new cases, six are men and two women.

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Media Release
May 6,2020

Mangaluru, May 6: The Kanara Chamber of Commerce and Industry has urged the government to consider erstwhile undivided Dakshina Kannada (now DK & Udupi) as one unit for the purpose of movement of people. KCCI president Isaac Vas has written a letter to Karnataka chief secretary T M Vijay Bhaskar in this regard. 

Mr Vas said: Even though the erstwhile Dakshina Kannada district was bifurcated in 1997 for administration purposes, the two districts are actually an urban agglomeration with most of the population residing in suburbs/towns. Office Staff, technical crew and labour of many industries reside in either district and commute daily for work within an efficient transport system.

The present restriction on Inter-district movement in view of the Lockdown is hindering the kick starting of industries and commerce. Workers are deprived of their livelihood and Industry and business owners are finding it challenging to move forward. To add to this, the migrant labour is moving back to their native places further aggravating the situation. Many Industries and Commercial establishments have requested us to take up this matter with the government, he said.

“Hence, we kindly request you to consider these two districts as one geographical area for the movement of people and private vehicles,” he said adding that this would facilitate movement of people for employment and business in either districts of Dakshina Kannada & Udupi.

He pointed out that Bangalore Rural, Bangalore Urban, Ramanagara, Chikkaballapur and Kolar are considered as a single unit as per your order No. RD158/TNR 2020 dt 03/05/2020 (Clause 2(a)).

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News Network
June 23,2020

Bengaluru, June 23: A frustrated chartered accountant has committed suicide after killing his wife and mother-in-law in two different cities of India.

The murder-murder-suicide came amid acrimonious divorce proceedings that might have also involved a property dispute, police said.

Amit flew to Bengaluru last weekend to kill his estranged wife at her Whitefield residence before returning to Kolkata, where he shot dead his mother-in-law and then killed himself at an upscale residential complex in North Kolkata on Monday evening.

Amit and his wife Shilpi Agarwal, who is also a CA, had been living separately since last the two years after their marriage turned sour.

Amit took his 10-year-old son from Bengaluru with him on Monday and dropped him at his uncle’s house before heading to his in-laws’ place Phoolbagan, police said.

Neighbours told cops they heard arguments “appeared to be” over some property documents that Amit wanted his in-laws — 70-year-old Subhas and 62-year-old Lalita Dhandhania — to sign.

The first gunshot was heard a little before 6.30pm, following which Subhas ran out of his flat, bolted the door from outside and took refuge inside his next-door neighbour’s apartment. Police arrived a few minutes later to find Amit and his mother-in-law dead. Police found a suicide note from the flat.

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