MP Assembly: Oppn walks out over govt's "anti-farmer" policies

The matter was raised in the Question Hour by Ram Niwas Rawat of Congress who claimed that because of the "anti-farmer" policies of the state government, more than 5,000 farm labourers in Madhya Pradesh were forced to commit suicide in the last eight months.

Congress members also demanded that a legislative committee be set up to look into the matter.

Leader of Opposition Ajay Singh also said that this was an extremely sensitive issue since it involved suicides by farmers. He also demanded setting up of a legislative committee to probe the matter.

Ajay said the committee should on an experimental basis look into cases only in one division and this will reveal the extent to which farmers were committing suicide in the state.

Responding to this, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that the Congress was doing politics in the name of farmers and pointed out that his government had decided to give loans at zero per cent interest to farmers and also announced a number of schemes for their development.