Congress Government Credits Itself For Reduced In Suicidal Farmers Deaths In MP

Reports have been coming in from Madhya Pradesh where the Congress has stated that under its ministry the suicidal death of farmers have decreased.

This happened due to to former Chief Minister Kamal Nath decision to waive off loans given to farmers.  Congress in Madhya Pradesh claimed this as the statistics in the state showed that there have been a drop of 53% in farmer suicidal death case in 2019.

The NCRB has released its accidental deaths and suicides in India (ADSI) report for the year 2019 last week.

The central Indian state reported 303 farmer suicide cases in 2018 when the Bharatiya Janata Party was in power and it came down to 142 cases in 2019 when Congress ruled the state.

Although there is a significant improvement in the suicide cases of farmers, the suicide by farm labourers has increased from 352 to 399 in MP during this period as reported in the state.

However, the farmer suicide trend in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, where Congress came to power in 2018 with MP is different.

In Rajasthan where only two farmers had committed suicide in 2018 and the number was same in 2019 as well while in Chhattisgarh the cases increased by 21% from 182 in 2018 to 233 cases in 2019.

The Congress in Madhya Pradesh promised Rs 2 lakh per head loan waiver to farmers in 2018 assembly elections. The Congress government claimed to have waived loans of more than two million farmers who had loans up to Rs 50,000 in the first phase. 

The second phase of waiver of loans of Rs 50,001 to Rs one lakh was announced in December 2019. But before the Congress government implemented the scheme it lost its majority to BJP in March 2020.