Who is lying, the CM or police records?
Meanwhile, a CGnet member was busy collecting the police records for 24 thanas in the district of Durg. We were shocked to find 11 cases of farmer suicide on this small list. The cause of suicide was “debt”. Against the backdrop of the chief minister’s statement that no farmer in Chhattisgarh was committing suicide due to debt, we had expected the police records to match this claim. It may be noted here that: Durg is not the district with the highest number of suicides in the state. The list available with us for Durg district is not complete. The figures available are for 2004 only although the state has been in existence since 2000. If this sample were extrapolated to the entire district, the figures for farmer suicides due to economic reasons would be higher. Apart from the 11 farmers who committed suicide due to debt there are 21 cases on the list where cause of death has been listed as “economic reasons”. The list also has the names of 52 labourers who committed suicide due to “ec
