Farmers' suicide issue rocks Karnataka Assembly

Facing the heat of Opposition over farmers suicides and protests from sugarcane growers, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah today asked peasants to end the tendency to take away their lives, while assuring that his government was with them in their hour of distress.
The recent incidents of farmers suicides gave a stormy start to the legislature session as it began today with the BJP and JDS launching an offensive against the Siddaramaiah government for being "careless" towards farmers' plight.
As the government came under attack in both the Assembly and Council, hundreds of sugarcane growers staged a protest near the legislature building here demanding payment of dues to them by the sugar mill owners.

A debt-ridden cane grower carrying a bottle with pesticide threatened to commit suicide but a police squad prevented it. The cane growers also blocked the Bengaluru-Pune national highway during the protest, police said.
Siddaramaiah said he was pained by the suicide of farmers and appealed to them to refrain from taking such extreme steps. Suicide is no solution, he said in the Council.
He said the government would honour the commitments made to sugarcane growers and was with the farmers in this hour of distress.
"....We are always with farmers.....Suicide tendency among farmers is growing and it should end," he said.

In the Assembly, a united opposition attacked the government over its alleged failure, which BJP leader Jagadish Shettar charged had left the farmers with no other option but to commit suicide.