HYDERABAD: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president and MP A. Revanth Reddy expressed serious concern over the rising number of farmers' suicides across Telangana state. Blaming Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao for the suicides, he said Rao was busy in his political and religious tours while leaving lakhs of farmers in deep distress.
Revanth Reddy said lakhs of farmers in Telangana were in distress due to the negligent attitude of both the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) governments at the state and the Centre respectively.
"Farmers are trapped in huge debts. They are unable to clear off their debts as the authorities are not buying their produce or not offering them MSP. They already exhausted all their resources to cultivate the last crop and they have no money to invest for the forthcoming crop. Finding no possible exit from the current financial crisis, many farmers have committed suicide while several others are on the verge of resorting to the extreme step," he feared.
Relatives of farmers who committed suicide are being allegedly threatened by the local authorities and the police that they would not get any benefit under 'Rythu Bima' if they registered a case of suicide. Therefore, many suicides were being shown as death due to 'natural causes' and not farming, he alleged.
Revanth Reddy said the families of farmers who committed suicide must get Rs 6 lakh compensation and other assistance as per the provisions of GO Ms No. 421. However, the TRS government stopped the implementation of GO Ms No 421 just to conceal the figures of farmers' suicide. He demanded that the state government give direction to all district collectors to extend the financial assistance to the farmers' families without further delay as per the GO Ms No. 421.
Chandrashekar Rao’s proposed Federal Front was an idea floated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to split anti-BJP votes, he said. The Federal Front, if constituted, will act as a tool to damage the Congress to divide the votes and benefit the BJP. He said all secular parties realised that Rao was an agent of Modi and nobody would ever trust him. However, he said, Rao, with the support of BJP's ‘Godi media’, might try to create hype about his front at the national level.
