Hyderabad: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi's padayatra in Telangana on Friday to console the families of farmers who committed suicide due to crop failure and debts seems to have had an impact on the Telangana government.
His padayatra attracted national attention putting Telangana on the top in the list of states where maximum farmer suicides took place in a year. The debate the issue generated nationally because of Mr Gandhi's padayatra put TS in poor light much to the embarrassment of the TRS government.
The agriculture department was busy on Friday preparing the list of farmers who had committed suicide and the compensation paid to families. This is to enable the government and ministers to counter the claims of Congress leaders that about 1,000 farmers had committed suicide in TS since the state was formed in June 2014.
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There has been a big delay in collectors sending this list to the government. Though the government has been asking collectors to collect the data of farmer suicides since October 2014, they failed to send a comprehensive report so far saying that the inquiry to ascertain whether all these deaths were suicides or not by a three-member committee was still going on.
The next Cabinet meeting is expected to have agriculture and farmers issues as the main agenda where a decision on consoling farmers by the Chief Minister and ministers is likely to be taken.
The TRS government has admitted only 92 suicides so far though reports claim over 900 suicides. Government sources said that the CM and ministers were planning tours to console farmers and distribute ex-gratia in October 2014 but it got delayed due to various reasons. This delay has given an opportunity for Mr Gandhi to score a point over the TS government by taking up a padayatra even before the CM and ministers could do so.
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"At present a compensation of Rs 1.50 lakh is being given for farmers' suicides. The government is contemplating to increase it to Rs 2 lakh and distribute the amount through the CM and ministers soon," sources revealed.
Modi helps only bizmen, says Rahul:
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi asked people who attended the meeting whether anyone among them had got a job with the central or state governments though both the governments had completed a year.
He alleged that Mr Modi was running the government to benefit five or six industrialists close to him and those who accompanied him during his tours to other countries. He alleged that Mr Modi was forgetting farmers, workers and the poor. “We will stand by farmers and workers and help them to defend their rights,” Mr Gandhi said adding that the BJP government had removed all the three important safeguards provided to farmers in the Land Acquisition Bill-2013 brought out by the UPA government.
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He made it clear that the Congress was not against development, but it should not be a free-for-all capitalism like what Mr Modi was promoting. The Congress vice-president said industrialisation should be integrated with agriculture and noted that 40 per cent of land acquired for SEZs were still lying vacant. Mr Gandhi equated land to gold and said that it will acquire more value in future if farmers keep it with them and said the Modi government wanted to snatch lands from farmers.
He said farmers badly need support and help from governments when they faced natural calamities and recalled that the Congress had announced special packages when there was a drought in Maharashtra and Bundelkhand. Senior leaders Mr Kuntia, Mr A.R. Uttam Kumar Reddy, Mr Jaipal Reddy, Mr Shabbir Ali, Mr K. Jana Reddy, Mr Vamshi Chand Reddy and DCCB chairman Mr Eleti Maheswhar Reddy were also present.
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