The scheme that promises employment every year to each rural household in rural areas during drought and national calamities is supposed to check farmers migration and agricultural labourers to urban areas.
However, Telangana mangaged to bring the employement days to 31 this year when 100 days where promised and the payments have to be made within 15 days but amount overdue have mounted for nearly a year. As per norms, payments have to be made within 15 days but arrears have mounted for nearly a year.
E. Mallesh (28) and Banothu Garia (30), a tribal farmer could not overcome the crop failure. Mallesh had taken six acres on lease and cultivated cotton by borrowing from money lenders and pledging wife’s gold ornaments. The crop withered due to the prolonged dry spell. He consumed pesticide in his agricultural field. So was the case with Garia, who also underwent similar ordeal and finding it difficult to come out of the debt trap, committed suicide. In other incident, Narayan Reddy too hanged himself from the ceiling fan at his residence in Ranga Reddy district.
A 23-year-old tribal farmer and his sister died after taking pesticide in their farm in Nalgonda district. Thirtytwo-year-old Karunakar of Sadupally village in the same district hanged himself in his house. He ran up a huge debt after borrowing money to cultivate maize crop. Yet another farmer, Agaiah of Warangal district, consumed pesticide and ended life.
Agrarian crisis triggered by a continuing dry spell coupled with mounting debts and crop failure continued to take a heavy toll on the farming community. Widespread rainfall in the past 48 hours came too late to save the withering crops.
The Congress tried to push the Government to a corner when a delegation led by Leader of Opposition in Telangana Legislative Council, Md. Ali Shabbir, visited the family of B. Limbadri in Nizamabad district on Thursday after he committed suicide by hanging from an electric pole in Hyderabad, a km away from the State Secretariat.
The Congress leaders handed over Rs. 1 lakh to the bereaved family. Mr. Shabbir said a concrete assurance to the farmers could have prevented many suicides.
Minister for Irrigation T. Harish Rao said the government was committed to aiding the farmers. He lashed out at the erstwhile Congress and TDP governments for neglecting the farm sector.
