Belagavi: As many as 1327 farmers have committed suicide in Karnataka since last two years and State government has paid compensation to the next to the kin of the deceased, Minister for Agriculture Shivashankara Reddy said in the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday.

During a debate on the severe drought conditions prevailed in the State, he said that while 1324 cases of farmers suicide cases were reported during 2016-17 another 539 fresh cases of suicide were reported in 2017-18.

He said that the scrutiny committee on farmers suicide cases had confirmed that as many as 1034 cases of deaths are related to distress due to farm loan in 2016-17, the Committee rejected the claims of 116 cases for the year 2017-18.

Stating that the State government has taken several measures to desist the farmers from taking extreme step in the life, the Minister said that “the Crop Insurance Scheme and the Fasal Bhima Yogana would be streamlined”.

“A meeting of Crop Insurance companies, representatives of farmers associations and other stakeholders would be convened next week to further tune the scheme” he said.

Stating that Insurance companies have paid crop Insurance claim to the tune of Rs 872 crore during 2016-17 against a payment of premium of Rs 629.15 crore, he said that “during 2017-18 the companies had paid crop loss claim of Rs 605 crore as against the premium collection of 1708.97 crores”.

Intervening in the debate the BJP member, C T Ravi suggested the state government to constitute a committee to look into the issue of farmers suicide incidents in Karnataka.

“It is pertinent to know the exact fact over farmers taking extreme steps to commit suicide despite announcement of farm loan waiver scheme and other sops” he said.