Newskarnataka – Bangalore

Bangalore: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has backtracked on a statement made by him a couple of days ago regarding  the November 2013 case of suicide of a sugarcane farmer in front of the Suvarna Vidhana Saudha in Belgaum. The CM who had earlier said that the farmer was drunk, has however on April 3, Thursday, argued that his earlier  statement was  completely twisted and misinterpreted and  said  “I never told that he was drunk.”

 As per media reports, Siddaramaiah  while addressing a public meeting had said that  neither him nor the government  had anything to do with the farmer and that “he was drunk, he consumed poison and he died.”

 Moreover the reports also  mentioned Siddaramaiah as stating that investigation was going on  and that he had not seen the reports though media reports said that he died due to consuming poison.

 It can be recalled that in November 2013, the sugarcane farmers were demanding that the government declare sugarcane prices under the State Advised Price Act at 9.5% sugar recovery coinciding with the commencement of the winter session of the Assembly. An agitated  sugarcane farmer  had committed suicide by consuming poison during the protest. Even the CM and some of his cabinet colleagues had visited KLE Hospital where the farmer later died.