Condemning media reports that Telangana had the highest number of farmer suicides in India, BRS MLC and Rythu Bandhu Samithi Chairman Palla Rajeshwar Reddy today said that the reports were baseless and were designed to malign the image of the State government.
Speaking at a press conference, Rajeshwar Reddy along with MLCs Basavaraju Saraiah, V Gangadhar Goud and Tata Madhu said that the suicides of farmers had come down by 75% in Telangana from 2014, and that the Niti Aayog had appreciated the State government in its reports saying that the government's welfare measures for farmers were very encouraging.
"According to official records, 1,300 farmers committed suicides in 2014. However, the number was just 352 this year. Telangana is the only State in the country where the number of farmers' suicides declined," Reddy said.
Claiming that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had initiated various schemes for the welfare of farmers, Reddy said that under the Rythu Bheema scheme, about Rs 4,770 crore had been paid to the family members of 95,399 farmers who died due to various reasons.
He also found fault with an NGO Rythu Swarajya Vedika, YSRCP Telangana president Y S Sharmila and Andhra Jyothi for "spewing venom" against the BRS government on the farmers' suicides, and asked why they remained silent when the union government had reduced the allocation to Telangana under the Prime Minister Kisan Nidhi scheme.
"There is no scheme which benefits farmers being implemented by the union government. The Prime Minister's prestigious Fasal Bheema Yojana scheme is not being implemented even in Gujarat," Reddy claimed.