HYDERABAD: A day after writing a letter to CM K Chandrasekhar Rao asking for repeal of GO 317, TPCC president A Revanth Reddy on Thursday wrote another letter to the CM demanding that immediate measures be taken to assist chilli farmers who have suffered huge crop losses.
He said 10 lakh compensation should be paid to those farmers who died by suicide. The TPCC chief said there had been an alarming rise in farmer suicides across the state in the last three to four months. “Every day, on average, 5-10 farmers are ending their lives. They are taking extreme measures because they have suffered significant losses and accumulated massive debts as a result of crop losses,” he pointed out in the letter.
Revanth urged the CM to dispatch a team of ministers to the affected districts (Khammam, Mahabubabad, Kottagudem, Warangal Urban, Warangal Rural, Nalgonda and Suryapeta) to assess the situation and reassure chilli farmers. In addition, he stated that the Congress party would launch a campaign to seek justice for chilli farmers.
“Compensation should be paid to chilli farmers who have lost their crops. They should be provided with free seeds and fertilisers for their next crop. Compensation of 10 lakh should be paid to the families of farmers who have died by suicide,” he said.
“Farmers expected good returns on their investment of about 1 lakh per acre. The crop, however, was destroyed by an invasive insect from Indonesia that was first observed in 2015,” he added.
