Kurnool: With Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s decision to compensate farmers who had committed suicide in the past five years (2014-19) by paying `7 lakh per person, the district officials are hunting for dead souls, literally.
The CM announced this decision during a video conference with district collectors on Wednesday.
District Agriculture joint director Tagore Naik said that Kurnool district recorded 133 suicides in the past five years. Out of them, 113 farmers were paid `5 lakhs each. With regard to the remaining 20 people, 10 were identified and money was sanctioned. The whereabouts of the remaining 10 were not known, he said.
When asked whether the compensation disbursed to the dead was based on accurate data, he said that postmortem reports were secured and the causes of the death after preliminary investigation into the occupational pursuits of the dead were studied.
“Only after obtaining all the information we shortlisted them for the benefit,” Mr Tagore Naik said.
Meanwhile, the kin of the farmers who committed suicide, were hoping to get the balance of `2 lakh from the Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy government. But the real problem was identifying the families of the dead as many of them had left their villages in search of livelihood. Mr Tagore said, “We have all the records with us and there won’t be any problem in disbursing additional amounts received on account of the largesse provided by the government.”
According to the CM, 1,513 farmers had committed suicide in the last 5 years. “Previous Government offered compensation to only 391 farmers families. Mr Reddy directed collectors to identify the dead farmers and arrange for dispersing compensation at the earliest.
