Finally breaking its silence, the Telangana Government on Friday ordered a probe into the suicides by farmers across the State.
Speaking to media persons at the Secretariat Media Point, Agriculture Minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy said that Chief Secretary Dr Rajiv Sharma had been asked to gather complete information on the suicides committed by farmers in the State.
The Chief Secretary, in turn, had directed the District Collectors to furnish information pertaining to the suicides committed by farmers since the formation of Telangana on June 2 this year.
The Collectors have been asked to furnish the information immediately.
Pocharam, however, defended the TRS Government on the issue. He claimed that as many as 3,190 farmers had committed suicide from 1998 to 2014 during the regimes of the TDP and the Congress. However, both the Parties were now trying to defame the TRS Government on the issue.
He said that erratic power supply was the major cause for crop failures, and had driven the farmers to suicide.
He blamed the previous TDP and Congress Governments for ignoring Telangana's power sector, which deteriorated the conditions for farmers.
The minister also informed that the Rs 4 per litre incentive scheme for Vijaya Dairy Milk producers would be launched in Mahabubnagar on Saturday. (INN)