Basing its observations on random study of 142 farmers’ suicides in Telangana, a NGO ‘Rythu Swarajya Vedika’ has declared that agriculture-related suicide numbers in the State as reported by media are not inflated.
A total of 1,512 farmer suicides since June 2, 2014 had agriculture-related causes, as confirmed by the sample study, representatives from the forum announced at a press conference here on Saturday. The study conducted jointly by volunteers from the forum along with a NRI run NGO ‘I4Farmers’, covered 49 mandals from seven districts barring Khammam and Nizamabad.
Addressing media, Telangana joint action committee chairman M. Kodandram said increased focus on just 20 assembly constituencies with high incidence of suicides could rule out the problem. A total of 150 mandals in the state have not recorded even a single suicide, while more than 10 suicides are reported from only about 20 mandals.
All the suicides were debt-driven, while many debts could be sourced to expenditure on bore-wells, excessive dependence on commercial crops requiring huge investments, and private loans at high interest rates availed by tenant farmers.
Mr.Kodandram asked the state government to declare drought-hit mandals immediately so that bank loans get rescheduled. He also sought ex-gratia for crops lost, and maximum MSP for all cotton farmers.
Demands from the Forum include applying the increased compensation to families of all suicide victims after June 2, 2014, inclusion of local people in committees to identify the families, and doing away with documents other than FIR and enquiry report as evidence, among others.
Also suggested were measures to prevent suicides, which include compensation for crop loss, loan eligibility cards to tenant farmers, complete waiver of public sector loans, and conversion of private loans to public loans.
The study conducted jointly by volunteers from the forum along with a NRI run NGO ‘I4Farmers’, covered 49 mandals from seven districts barring Khammam and Nizamabad
