The Human Rights Forum (HRF), Rythu Swarajya Vedika (RSV) and Denotified and Nomadic Tribes Political Front (DPF) have urged the Andhra Pradesh Government to ensure immediate financial relief to the bereaved families of farmers who ended their lives.
Visiting seven bereaved families of farmers who took the extreme step, a delegation of HRF, RSV and DPF members said the main grouse of the families was the delay in promised relief.
G.O. No. 43 provides for a financial assistance of ₹7 lakh and rehabilitation package to the family members of those farmers who have committed suicide. Only two of the seven families of the deceased farmers-- Juturu Srinivasa Reddy of Mikkilimpeta village in Kodavaluru mandal and Kalicheti Penchal Reddy of Kolagatla village in Sangam mandal-- visited were compensated, they found.
Other farmer families visited by the team were that of Kakarakayala Chenna Kesavulu(49), Pothi Suraiah(45) Challa Bhaskar Reddy (35), Chevuri Suresh and Juturu Srinivasa Reddy, they said in a release here on Thursday. Most of those who committed suicide were debt-ridden tenant farmers who ended their lives in the absence of institutional credit, and excessive reliance on private money lenders. They also lacked access to reliable and reasonably priced inputs and a remunerative price for their produce. .
The Revenue Divisional Officer-headed three-member verification and certification committee had not visited any of these five villages as was mandated under the GO. The mandal-level committee led by the tehsildar also did not visit them, leaving the families in the lurch. None of the tenant farmers had been issued the Crop Cultivator Rights Card (CCRC), they added.
Only 713 families of the 2,105 farmers who ended their lives in the State from June 2019 till the end of 2021 had been compensated under G.O 43. The team wanted the government to include one-time loan settlement in the financial package so as to mitigate the debt burden of the families.
The team members were RSV State Committee member B. Kondal, DPF national convenor M. Subba Rao, HRF State Committee member G. Rohith, HRF AP and Telangana Coordination Committee member V.S. Krishna.
