Twenty-five-year-old Challa Ravi, a native of this village in Pulkal mandal, went missing on April 14, 2015. After two days, his body was found in the bushes adjacent to the village. It was found that he had committed suicide by consuming pesticide.
Another young farmer Ravi, took about 10 acres of land on lease with a lease amount of ₹ 8,000 per acre per year to grow cotton. However, luck did not favour him and after being a tenant farmer for three years, he found himself saddled with a debt of ₹ 4 lakh and committed suicide. Shocked over the incident, his mother Sattemma lost her vocal card and is not in a position to communicate. “The case was registered as farmer’s suicide, but compensation has not been paid so far despite submitting all the papers,” says Ch. Sudhakar, brother of Ravi. The case of Vanjari Anantaiah (39) of Sarafpally village in the same mandal is not any different. In addition to taking two-and-half acres of land on ‘palu’ (share of half yield), he took four acres of land on a lease of ₹ 12,000 per acre.
“The debts touched ₹ 4 lakh and Anantaiah felt stressed. He left me and our two children – Varun studying second class and Akshya studying sixth class – to our fate and chose to end his life. Now I am working at the girls’ hostel at the adjacent JNTU campus on contract basis,” said Kavitha, wife of Anantaiah, adding that it took about eight months to get the death certificate. Presently, Anantaiah’s brother Shantaiah is a pillar of support to the family.
Moodu Balya, a resident of Bommareddygudem and Banotu Umla Naik of Minpur tanda had also committed suicide on November 12, 2015 and April 7, 2016 respectively and their families had not received any compensation so far. “The officials are stating that there is no budget allocation; hence we have to wait,” said relative of a farmer who committed suicide.
“In the past some Collectors diverted money from other funds to pay ex gratia. In many cases the amount was not adjusted, forcing the higher officials to avoid such practices. We have recommended some cases, but the compensation was not released so far. Budget has to be released to pay compensation to these families and we are helpless though we know their predicament ,” said an officer on condition of anonymity.
“Compensation to the families of farmers who had committed suicide in 2014 was paid only recently. The government is not acting as fast as it has to in the case of farmers,” said Kondal Reddy of Rytu Swarajya Vedika.
