Times of India: Gandhinagar: Monday, 21 July 2014.
Opposition
Congress and BJP sparred over farmer suicides in the state during a discussion
on budgetary demands of the agriculture and co-operation department on Friday.
Congress MLA
from Jamnagar Raghavji Patel alleged that as many as 614 farmers had committed
suicide during the last decade in Gujarat due to the government's apathy.
"According
to an RTI application, a total of 614 farmers in Gujarat committed suicide
between 2003-2013 due to crop failure, mounting debt and inability to repay
their loans," said Patel in his speech in the assembly during the discussion
on budgetary allocations made to state agriculture and co-operation department.
State
agriculture and co-operation minister Babu Bokhiria and other BJP members
objected to the charge and hence speaker Vajubhai Vala intervened asking the
Congress member to produce authentic documents to support his claim.
Senior
Congress MLA and party chief whip Balwantsinh Rajput claimed that 7,000 farmers
ended their lives in the last five years in Gujarat.
However,
agriculture minister Bokhiria defended the state government on the issue of
farmer suicides. "Congress MLAs should ask the Congress-led Maharashtra
government about the large number of farmers committing suicides in Vidarbha
region. This is not the case here, as we protect them with agriculture insurance
scheme for crop failure," claimed Bokhiria.
The minister
claimed that only two farmers have ended their lives due to debt or corp
failure, while others were due to several other social reasons only.