Spate of suicides in KCR's home district

HYDERABAD/MEDAK: Statehood for Telangana yielded a bitter crop for farmers in chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao's home district, Medak. Eighty nine farmers have committed suicide since June 2014, as per the district crime records bureau. Of these, only 33 farmers have received compensation from the government so far. All the farmers on the death roll were small and marginal land holders - the very lot who Chandrasekhar Rao had vowed to uplift.
But in what could come as a huge relief to the distressed farmers, the high court on Monday asked the government to announce a suitable package for ryots to put an end to the suicide spree. In an order on April 10, the court had told the government to conduct a fresh inquiry into the suicides of farmers in Medak district since 1998 and adequately compensate the families.
P Srihari Rao, president, Telangana Rythu Rakshana Samithi, who had filed a writ petition in 2012, said the court wanted the government to pay compensation to all the affected families by July 31 this year. "We are also demanding that the government allot houses and provide hostel facility to children of the deceased farmers," he said.
However, the woes of the victims' families are far from over. They complained that they have been seeking an audience with the chief minister for compensation but in vain. They also said that neither the chief minister nor irrigation minister Harish Rao has paid them a visit so far.
Villages like Alirajpet, Angadikistapur, Nabinagar, Chebarthi and PT Venkapur in Jagdevpur mandal, where some of the suicides have been reported, are located not far from KCR's farm house at Erravelli village.
Gadeela Ramulu of Angadikistapur said they have waited long but no aid has come their way. His farmer-son Gadeela Srisailam, 29, ended his life by consuming poison on November 5, 2014. "We had taken Rs 3 lakh loan from private moneylenders and could not repay it. My son committed suicide owing to pressure from the moneylenders," Ramulu recalled. The family had taken five acres on lease, sunk eight borewells and grown cotton and maize, but expectations of a higher yield came a cropper.
Teddu Lakshminarayan, 35, of Chebarthi hung himself from a tree on February 15. He had taken three acres on lease and had been borrowing from local moneylenders in the past few years as there was very little access to bank loans.
In fact, marginal farmers who barely own a piece of land take land on lease. "But they get mired in huge debts and resort to suicides. Eighty per cent of those who commit suicide are tenant farmers," pointed out B Kondal Reddy of Rythu Swarajya Vedika.
He said the government should first acknowledge the severity of the agrarian crisis. "What is stopping the chief minister from visiting the farmers' families who are in deep distress?" he sought to know.
One of the major election promises of KCR was waiver of crop loan up to Rs 1 lakh. But a majority of the suicides take place because the farmers are unable to repay the loans. Those who have received compensation complain that it comes in measly instalments of Rs 10,000 or Rs 20,000 instead of a one-time disbursal.
Under GO 421, families of deceased farmers get Rs 1.5 lakh ex gratia. "That's hardly sufficient to bring succour to the families. The government should enhance the aid to Rs 5 lakh," rights activist Anwar said.