Telangana Farmers suicide Ex gratia: The Telangana State Government on Tuesday announced to extend the enhanced ex gratia payment of Rs.6 lakh to the families of all farmers who have committed suicide since June 2 last year, provided such deaths are approved by the three-member committee functioning for the purpose.
Telangana Farmers suicide Ex gratia Rs.6 lakh from June 14
Making a statement as part of the short discussion on “failure of monsoon and measures taken for welfare of farmers”, in the Assembly, Minister for Agriculture Pocharam Srinivas Reddy further stated that the government would sympathetically consider the demand of waiver of the remaining 50 per cent loan out of total waiver up to Rs.1 lakh per farmer, at once.
Stating that the government was very much concerned about farmers’ suicides, the Minister appealed to the farming community in distress not to resort to the extreme step of ending lives since it was taking all possible measures for their welfare. On the circumstances leading to the distress situation, Mr. Srinivas Reddy said the unfavourable seasonal conditions resulted in drought during the last two years.
Besides, the distress also stemmed from non-completion of irrigation projects, abnormal depletion of groundwater table, decades of negligence of minor irrigation tanks and erratic power supply in the past had also led to piling up of debt, the Minister explained.
However, the present government had implemented 50 per cent loan waiver to the tune of Rs.8,336 crore so far, positioned seed and fertilizer well in advance, the Minister said. In spite of all such efforts, it was unfortunate to witness the spate of suicides, he noted.
The Minister admitted that truant monsoon affected crops cultivated in the entire Mahabubnagar district, 75 p.c. in Nizamabad, Medak and Ranga Reddy districts and 50 p.c. in Nalgonda and Karimnagar districts. A similar statement was made in the Council by Minister for Roads & Buildings Tummala Nageswara Rao.
