Hyderabad: Stung by the spate of farmer suicides, the Telangana government has constituted confidence building cells at mandal and district levels to help farmers.
Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who is on a 10-day tour of China along with a high-level delegation to participate in the World Economic Forum meet at Dalian and visiting other cities, reportedly enquired about the rain and farmer suicides with senior officials and asked them to reach out to farmers.
The government also decided to open a 24-hour toll-free helpline at all the district collectorates barring Hyderabad to help farmers.
The Warangal toll-free number, which is now operational, received half a dozen calls from farmers mostly pertaining to bank loans and release of loan waiver amounts.
“I got six calls since the morning. Callers sought help in getting bank loans and also release of loan waiver amount,” an officer in the Warangal district collectorate said.
Deputy CM Kadiam Srihari reviewed farmer suicides and other issues with senior officials.
Farmer suicides continue to increase by the day as crops withered due to lack of rain in several places.
The number of farmer suicides has risen to 421 now after Agriculture Minister, Pocharam Srinivas Reddy admitted to 409 deaths recently.
However, the district-level three-member committees have put the death toll at 141 after individual inquiries.
