Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s ambitious Rs 36,000 crore farmers’ loan waver scheme is again under scanner after two debt-ridden farmers committed suicide in the last two days in Charkhari of Mahoba in Bundelkhand area of Uttar Pradesh after failing to get any relief under the scheme.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s ambitious Rs 36,000 crore farmers’ loan waver scheme is again under scanner after two debt-ridden farmers committed suicide in the last two days in Charkhari of Mahoba in Bundelkhand area of Uttar Pradesh after failing to get any relief under the scheme.
Khemchandra (30) and 70-year-old Prahlad Singh hanged themselves in Charkhari area in Mahoba district of parched Bundelkhand when they failed to get any relief under the state government’s loan waver scheme. Family members claimed that they were being hounded by the bank staff to pay up the loan.
Hailing from Amarganj locality of Charkhari in Mahoba, Khemchandra had taken a loan of Rs 38,000 from a Gramin Bank in 2010 by mortgaging 3 bighas of his land. The loan went up to Rs 80,000 in 2017 when he failed to pay up installments due to repeated failure of crops years after years.
Father of four children, the young farmer saw a ray of hope of getting rid of his loan when the Yogi Adityanath government launched the much-publicised loan waver scheme. Since he qualified the conditions of the scheme, he applied for his loan waver. But his application was rejected without any explanation to him.
Manoj, his brother, said that since then he was undergoing a lot of mental pressure due to Bank staff making rounds at home and pressurizing him to clear loan or face auction of his land. But Khemchandra decided to fight and work hard for his wife Urai Devi, three daughters and a six-month-old son.
He sold off remaining 3 bigha of his land to buy a commercial vehicle thinking that he would earn enough to pay bank dues and make his family live on. But his new venture did not pay off. He went into depression and when his wife and children had gone to his in-laws place and brothers were working in the field, he hanged himself on Saturday afternoon.
In another similar suicide case, 70-year-old Prahlad Singh also hanged himself on Sunday afternoon in Aoktoha Village in Charkhari. He had taken a loan of Rs 2.5 lakh from State Bank of India and a money-lender. He too had applied for loan waver under the state government scheme but his application too got rejected on some ground.
His family members claimed that the money lender had threatened him to sell off his land if he did not clear dues within a month. Bank staff were also making rounds with similar threats leaving him no choice than to end his life, they added.
The Charkhari Tehsildar Parshuram said that the Qanungo has been asked to probe the suicide by the two farmers in the area to inquire how and why their loan waver applications were rejected.
He said claimed that efforts were being made through the District Magistrate office to get the family members financial compensation and wave off their loans.
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