With grim faces, nowhere to go and debt the size of Himalayas, group of around 150 farmers from Tamil Nadu have shrouded Delhi’s Jantar Mantar since March 14. The plight of Tamil Nadu farmers started after lack of rainfall in both Southwest and Northeast Monsoon last year. This led the state farmers to take this fathomable step.
To show the seriousness of the issue, farmers who are campaigning at Jantar Mantar have displayed human skulls which they claim to be of the dead farmers. Be it the stringent Cauvery water supply to the fields or the lack of rainfall; the reality is that 254 farmers have taken their lives since October last year. This figure is by Coordination Committee of the All Tamil Nadu Farmers’ Association.
The demand of the protesters from the Central government seems farfetched. White talking to PTI, the group leader Ayyannakannu said, "The Central government should announce a drought relief package of Rs.40000 crore, a loan waiver for farmers and assure us of better support price for our produce."
"When bank officials come to our house, they ask us questions like 'If you can afford clothes, how can you not have money to pay loans?'" Ayyannakannu continued further.
Yesterday, one of the farmers from the group who was protesting at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar tried to commit suicide at the venue itself. But thanks to the quick response by the Delhi Police personnel, no harm was done.
The state government has promised to wave off their loan. Even central banks like the State Bank of India has already waived off their loan but other banks are yet to do so. Many politicians have also come and met the protesters listening to their demands but no action has been taken yet.
On February 22, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu E Palaniswami had sanctioned a sum of Rs.2247 crore as drought relief to more than 3.2 million farmers.
DMK leader M K Stalin had visited family members of the deceased farmers. To sympathize with the families he provided Rs.1 lakh as cheque. But even with the state government’s financial assistance the money was spent on paying back the money farmers borrowed.
In 2015, Skymet Weather initiated a campaign called ‘Help The Farmer’ to focus government’s attention towards rising number of farmer suicide in India. Even the likes of Nana Patekar and Akshay Kumar among many celebrities' continuous downpour of wealth has not resulted in any concrete support to the cause.
Even the government cannot do much if the weather plays foul. In 2014 and again in 2015, the country experienced one of the worst droughts ever. And even with the at par rains over the country in 2016, Tamil Nadu remained highly deficient.
Please Note: Any information picked from here must be attributed to skymetweather.com
