Hyderabad, April 5: The Andhra Pradesh government today said that despite measures to prevent farmers from taking their lives, there have been 1,261 suicides since the Congress came to power in May 2004.
State agriculture minister N. Raghuveera Reddy, however, pinned the blame on the anti-farmer policies of the previous Telugu Desam Party regime. “In spite of the Congress government’s ad hoc measures like interest waiver on farmers’ debts, compensation to families of suicide victims and moratorium on debts, farmers’ travails have no end,” he said.
To get out of the “decades of debt trap”, the state government plans to approach Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar for a separate package for the farmers. “We want the Centre to provide cheap agricultural credit to farmers at less than 7 per cent interest,” the minister said.
According to a list provided by the state government today, Karimnagar, Kurnool, Nalgonda and Anantpur districts have recorded 100 suicides in the Congress regime. The others on the list are Ranga Reddy (91), Mahboobnagar (92), Medak (88), Adilabad (84), Nizamabad (72), Prakasham (52) and Guntur (60).
Chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy’s district, Kadapa, has recorded 15 farmer suicides while another 12 incidents were labelled fake.
In other parts of the state, 751 instances were described as not genuine and could not claim the relief package of Rs 1.5 lakh.
When the Congress was in the Opposition, it had presented a list of over 3,500 farmer suicides between 1999 and 2004.
Then chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu had appointed Ramchanna Reddy, a retired judge, to conduct an inquiry. He held the indifferent attitude and policy of the Desam government responsible for the deaths.
Critics of the Congress say the Rajasekhar Reddy regime has begun to ignore the farmers’ problems and is busy focusing on infotech development.
Ironically, the voice of former chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, who had set the IT ball rolling in Hyderabad, is the loudest in this chorus. “Irrigation projects have become dens of corruption and the farmer is forgotten,” the Desam president said.
