Farmer's Suicide Bid Atop Cell Tower Facing Assembly

Even as the Monsoon session of the Telangana Assembly was involved in a discussion over the unabated suicides by farmers in the State, exactly in front of the Assembly, one Sammaiah, a farmer from Warangal, created a sensation by attempting suicide by scaling a cell phone tower as he could not clear Rs 2 lakhs of debts.

Clad in jeans and a green shirt, Sammaiah threatened to end his life unless the government assured succour, and even consumed some pesticide, keeping the police on tenterhooks.

Sammaiah later told reporters he had to resort to such an extreme step after making a vain bid to enter the Assembly to meet Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and other ministers for help during the session.

"I wrote some 150 songs for statehood, and the new Telangana government did not come to my rescue. The police did not allow me into the House, and I had to scale the cell tower," he said.

The police officials, who denied him entry into the Assembly as he did not have any pass to show, could finally convince him to get down only after he consumed some poison.

They heaved a sigh of relief when he did descend, and then shifted him to a hospital.