The BJP challenged the figures put out by the Telangana government on farmer suicides since the formation of the State at a meeting attended by the Agriculture Secretary of the Central government, Siraj Hussain, here on Sunday.
A delegation of the party headed by Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya informed Mr. Hussain that 418 had farmers committed suicide but the State government represented by Principal Secretary B.R. Meena and Agriculture Commissioner G.D. Priyadarshini maintained that only 96 persons had died. The State government officials told Mr. Hussain that the enumeration of crop loss on account of the recent rains was taken up.
Mr. Dattatreya and BJP MLAs G. Kishan Reddy, K. Laxman, N.V.S.S. Prabhakar and C. Ramachandra Reddy later addressed a press conference stating that Mr. Hussain was in the city as part of the Central government’s decision to send its officials across the country to prepare contingency plans in the event of drought. Four teams of BJP toured Telangana to gather details of suicide and other agricultural problems and presented them to Mr. Hussain, Mr. Dattatreya said.
