National Human Rights Commission puts Telangana on notice for farmers' suicides

New Delhi / Hyderabad: With reports suggesting that nearly 100 farmers have committed suicide after the new state came into being, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Tuesday issue a notice to the Telangana government asking it to submit a report in this regard in the next two weeks.

Taking suo motu cognisance of media reports, the Commission issued a notice to the Telangana chief secretary. “Reportedly, thousands of farmers are caught in a vicious cycle of debts due to low yields or total crop failure and there is constant pressure from moneylenders and when it does not rain and crops start failing, all they can think of is escaping it by taking their own lives,” the NHRC said in its notice.

Quoting mediareports, the NHRC said the Telangana government had announced a scheme of waiver of loan to farmers, but an order issued by it on the August 13 stated that the scheme covered only institutional loans and not loans from non-institutional sources.