It's Official: 409 Farmers' Suicides In Telangana

Expressing concern over the unabated suicides by farmers, Telangana Agriculture Minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy today attributed the problem to the faulty policies of the previous Congress government.

Talking to mediapersons at the Secretariat on Wednesday, Pocharam slammed the Opposition leaders for projecting highly inflated figures of some 1,000 suicides by farmers as against the actual figure of 409 in Telangana.

The State government was committed to providing succour to the farmers by taking remedial measures to check suicides, he said.

"We have so far disbursed Rs 6,631 crores in loans to 15,00,131 farmers during the Kharif season," he informed.

He added that they had achieved 80% of the irrigation target by bringing 34,800 acres of land out of 41,430 acres under irrigation.

He also expressed displeasure at some Andhra officials working in the banks in the Telangana region forcibly collecting interests against norms from farmers for crop loans.

"Upon getting information, we will pay back the same amount to the farmers," he said, adding that there was no interest for loans up to Rs 1 lakh, and 25 paise interest would be collected for loans up to Rs 3 lakhs.

As per the committee reports and GO 421, the government had so far released compensation to 141 families of farmers, and the rest would be paid soon, he promised.

He exhorted farmers not to take to extreme steps as the government would provide all possible assistance to them by considering every peasant as a unit, which was not done by the previous government.

"We have written a letter to the Centre for crop insurance by considering every farmer as a unit," Reddy said.

"We will soon also declare deserving mandals drought-hit in the State upon getting information from the concerned departments," he added.

The minister said that of Rs 17,500 crores earmarked for crop loan waiver including interest, the government had released half in two installments so far, and the rest would be released soon in equal installments.

The previous Congress government had failed to offer timely financial help and succour to the farmers, adding to their woes, he charged.