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Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah expressed concern over the rising number of suicides among farmers in the Indian state of Karnataka. Statistics revealed that 400 farmers have committed suicides from 1 January 2015 to 31 August 2015 in Karnataka. This is seven times more than that of last year.

On Tuesday, the Chief Minister has addressed a day-long meeting with deputy commissioners of districts, regional commissioners, and chief executive officers of zilla panchayats here. Reeling the stats, Siddaramaiah asked officials to do everything possible to put an end to the suicide trend.

The meeting was called to take a stock of farmer suicides, situation of drought besides reviewing implementation of schemes declared in the state budget.

According to Siddaramaiah, 58 farmer suicides were seen by Karnataka in 2013-14, while 48 in 2014-15. Between December 1997 and June 1998, the last crisis of high magnitude occurred when 400 farmers taken off their lives due to cotton crop failure in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, officials said.

Main reasons for the tragedies in most cases are due to arm-twisting by moneylenders and middlemen, according to the preliminary investigation conducted by police. Hence, the officials were asked by the Chief Minister to keep a tab on middlemen and moneylenders and take up immediate action if such incidents are seen.

-Sumana