On February 6, 2019, 53-year-old Ramavath Rupla of Sheritanda in Koudipally mandal of Medak district ended his life by hanging. He dug two bore-wells which had failed. Paddy and maze crops were badly hit due to drought conditions adding to his woes of an existing debt of ₹ 2.5 lakh.
On February 23, 2019, 45-year-old Golla Chinna Shankaraiah, a farmer belonging to Achampet village in Narsapur mandal, had ended his life by hanging. He was unable to come out of the agriculture debt he had. Before taking the extreme step he moved around several villages to find out a solution for his problem.
On March 8, 2019, 55-year-old Maddi Anjaiah, a farmer of Katriyal village in Ramayampet mandal, had attempted suicide by consuming pesticide. He was shifted to Gandhi Hospital where he died, while undergoing treatment.
All these three incidents took place within one month in Medak district alone and all were registered by the police.
However, these were not mentioned in the list of farmers’ suicides from Medak district in the information provided under Right to Information (RTI) Act sought by B. Kondal Reddy of Rytu Swarajya Vedika. The reply to the information sought under RTI showed no farmer suicide deaths for the years 2019, 2020 and 2021 till June 30.
This has become a serious question for many non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working on farmers’ issues on the actual number of farmers who had committed suicide in the last seven years in Telangana and how many of these deaths were actually registered in the records.
“We have requested information under RTI Act from the office of Superintendent of Police, Medak, about the farmers suicides in Medak district since 2014 June. The information provided by officials claimed that there were no deaths for three years,” Mr. Kondal Reddy told The Hindu
The government had issued GO 194 specifically to come to the rescue of farmers’ families, who had took the extreme step, under the GO the government would extend a financial assistance of ₹ 5 lakh to the family of farmer who had committed suicide and an additional ₹ 1 lakh as one time settlement to clear the debts taken by the deceased farmer.
“So far only 1,500 families have benefited from the GO whereas the number of suicide by farmers was anywhere between 6,000 to 7,000 in the last seven years after formation of Telangana. We do not know why the government is not coming forward to help these families. We will be holding a dharna at Dharna chowk on December 16 to bring the issue to the notice of government once again. Families of farmers who committed suicide will participate in the agitation,” said Mr. Kondal Reddy.
The system is that it was only police department which has to furnish information regarding farmers suicides to District Crime Records Bureau (DCRB), State Crime Records Bureau (SCRB) and National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
