Ex gratia not paid to kin of farmers who ended lives: HRF

Members of Human Rights Forum (HRF) interacting with the kin of a farmer of Tirupati district, who had committed suicide owing to financial troubles. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Human Rights Forum (HRF) and Rythu Swarajya Vedika (RSV) have found the claims and action at variance, vis-a-vis the State government’s assertion on having given ex-gratia to families of farmers who had committed suicide.

A three-member fact-finding team, comprising members of HRF and RSV, visited eight families of such farmers in Tirupati and Chittoor districts recently to determine the reasons for their suicide and also ascertain the relief provided, if any, by the State.

Only one of the eight families living in KVB Puram, Nindra, Vijayapuram, Puttur and Karvetinagaram mandals of the combined Chittoor district had received ex-gratia of ₹7 lakh, as per G.O.No.43.

“Barring the kin of K. Jayanthi (53) of Agarampeta in Nindra mandal, the other seven families have been left high and dry by the government”, observes V.S. Krishna, HRF Coordination Committee Member (Andhra Pradesh and Telangana).

Along with HRF State Executive Member K. Madan Sekhar and RSV State committee member B. Kondal, Mr. Krishna extensively toured the region to find the pathetic situation of the kin of the farmers.

Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Krishna accused the State government of peddling lies on the matter by making lofty claims. “We can clearly establish the correlation between farm-related operations and economic distress leading to suicide in all the above cases. The farmers were principally raising paddy, maize, corn and groundnut relying solely on bore-wells. The appalling state of institutional credit forced them to approach private money-lenders, which eventually pushed them to indebtedness and take their lives”, Mr. Krishna observed.

The farmers who were yet to receive aid are T. Venkateswara Reddy (41) of Karlapudi, D. Elumalai (42) of Srinivasapuram, K. Mohanachari (45) and C. Venu (57), both of Aare village (all in KVB Puram mandal), M. Bhaskar Mandadi (55) of Venugopalapuram (Puttur mandal), M. Raghupathi (43) of Kalikapuram (Vijayapuram mandal) and S. Bhoopalaiah (51) of TKM Peta (Karvetinagaram mandal).

“What is even more shocking is that the three-member verification team headed by the Revenue Divisional Officer had not visited even one of these seven villages”, rues Mr. Krishna. The forum faults the Chief Minister’s claim reportedly made on June 14 that the families of all farmers who owned land and had relevant proof of the same had been financially compensated as per G.O.No.43, pointing out that all the seven families had relevant land ownership recorded in their pattadar passbook.