Farmers die only when Assembly is in session: Minister
Odisha Agriculture Minister Pradeep Maharathy on Sunday said that farmers commit suicides only when the Assembly is in session. "Once the session is over, are such incidents reported?" he asked. "Odia farmers live with dignity. No farmer has committed suicide even in difficult times like the famine in 1866 or the Super Cyclone in 1999," he added.
Odisha's Agriculture Minister Pradeep Maharathy has again landed in a controversy stating that state farmers commit suicides only when the Assembly is in session.Maharathy made the shocking statement when asked about Tamil Nadu farmers and also questioned the local media for not debating their plight. Tamil Nadu farmers, who have been protesting at Jantar Mantar in Delhi for past 41 days demanding drought relief package, today called off their strike till May 25 after assurance from Chief Minister E Palaniswamy.This is not the first time that the minister is in news for his insensitive remarks about farmer suicides. On March 4, Maharathy had made a statement in the state Assembly about a farmer who committed suicide in Bargarh district. He, then, said that the farmer had consumed poision after a quarrel with his wife and the cause of his death was not crop loss or debt burden.Later, the deceased farmer Hadu Bagarti's wife Kalabati had rejected the minister's statement and claimed she did not have any quarrel with her husband.The opposition BJP had slammed the statement and demanded his dismissal for "misleading" the Assembly with his statement on the death of a farmer in Bargarh district. 