Farmers' forums in Wayanad district find the slew of measures announced by the State Cabinet in the wake of a fresh bout of farmers' suicides ‘unsatisfactory and misguided.'
Harita Sena chairman V.T. Pradeepkumar told The Hindu on Wednesday that what the farming community needed was a comprehensive loan relief package rather than an year-long moratorium on repayment of loans taken from various government agencies The moratorium, announced by the State government, would not make much difference in their life as the majority of farmers had taken loans from financial institutions such as nationalised banks. Though the government had extended the date to air their grievances to the State Farmers' Debt Relief Commission, these financial institutions were yet to be brought under the jurisdiction of the commission. Hence, the majority of farmers would continue to face revenue recovery proceedings from these financial institutions, he said.
Though scheduled banks had rescheduled the loans of many farmers for five years under the Vidharbha model package, many of them were now facing revenue recovery proceedings with the knowledge of courts as the tenure of the package was already over. Decisions such as exempting farmers from the penalty on interest over their overdue loans would not cut much ice as the data prepared by some financial institutions were highly fabricated, he alleged.
P. Krishna Prasad, joint secretary, Kerala Karshaka Sanghom, said the need of the hour was boost the self-confidence of the farming community, but the Chief Minister was yet to announce any positive measures in this regard. The Chief Minister was dealing with the issue quite insensitively, he alleged.
The government, he said, could enhance their self-confidence by providing compensation to the families of the farmers who committed suicide and waiving their loans. The Left Democratic Front government had proved that such measures would act to arrest the tendency of farmers in distress to commit suicide.
The government should fix a remunerative price mechanism for farmers' produces according to the cost of production and living expense of the community instead of introducing a minimum support price mechanism, he added.
The leaders of the forums said that they would intensify their agitations in the coming days.
