House Panel Should Probe Farmer Suicides: Congress

The issue of farmers' suicides dominated the Telangana Legislative Council on the very first day of the session on Tuesday.

As soon as the debate on the farmers' suicides began, the Leader of the Opposition Mohammed Ali Shabbir demanded the constitution of a Legislature Committee to probe the suicides committed by farmers, and also to suggest measures to prevent agrarian crises in future.

He said that there had been confusion over the number of suicides due to farm-related reasons since the formation of Telangana. Therefore, all cases of farmers' suicide should be re-investigated so as to get the exact statistics.

He accused the government of remaining a mute spectator to the spate of suicides by farmers. He also slammed Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao for neglecting farmers.

Saying that farmers' suicides were not a new phenomenon, Shabbir Ali said that the previous Congress government had taken several initiatives to stop suicides.

The Congress leader criticised the government for splitting the crop loan waiver payment into four installments. He demanded that the government either clear the dues in one installment, or stand guarantee to ensure release of all documents and gold by the banks.

Alleging that Telangana stood at the top in the country in the number of suicides by farmers, Shabbir Ali said that the TRS government had hit rock bottom in all other sectors.

Meanwhile, Home Minister Nayani Narasimha Reddy intervened and objected to the use of sentence "farmers have been chained" by Shabbir Ali.

In his response, Shabbir Ali clarified that the word "chained" was not used by him in the literal sense. He wanted to convey that farmers felt like they had been tied, and could not do anything unless their dues were completely cleared.

He said that farmers had however indeed been caned and harassed by TRS government.

He also slammed the State government for not declaring drought-hit districts in 2014. Referring to a statement made by Deputy CM Mahmood Ali in the Assembly on November 20 of last year, Shabbir Ali said that despite having clear statistics on rainfall-deficient mandals, the TRS government did not declare drought-hit districts. This caused heavy losses to farmers.

Five other States, including Andhra Pradesh, which had declared drought-hit districts, got Central relief, he pointed out. Andhra Pradesh got Rs. 237 crores for seven drought-hit districts, he said.

He demanded that a massive awareness campaign be launched across the State to prevent further suicides.