RSV, HRF say farmers’ families denied mandated compensation

TIRUPATI: Rythu Swarajya Vedika (RSV) and Human Rights Forum (HRF) have demanded that state government extend financial aid to families of farmers who have committed suicide but have not yet received financial compensation from the state as envisaged under G.O. 43.

A three-member fact-finding team comprising RSV state committee member B. Kondal, HRF state executive committee member K. Madan Sekhar and HRF’s AP and Telangana coordination committee member V.S. Krishna visited eight families of farmers, who had committed suicide in Tirupati and Chittoor districts, to determine reasons for their suicides and state government’s response thereafter.

The eight families are spread across three revenue divisions of Tirupati, Chittoor and Nagari and five mandals of K.V.B. Puram, Nindra, Vijayapuram, Puttur and Karvetinagaram. The fact-finding team said their inquiries revealed that among the eight families, family of only one woman farmer – K. Jayanti of Agarampeta village in Nindra mandal – had received Rs. 7 lakh ex-gratia under G.O 43.

The seven farmers who committed suicide are T. Venkateswara Reddy of Karlapudi, D. Elumalai of Srinivasapuram, M. Raghupathi of Kalikapuram. S. Bhoopalayya of TKM Peta, K. Mohanachari and C. Venu of Aare, and M. Bhaskar of Venugopalapuram. The government has not paid any compensation to their families.

“In all these cases, there is correlation between farm-related operations and economic distress, eventually leading to suicide. Farmers end their lives due to institutional credit not being available. This leads to their reliance on private money lenders, leading to high indebtedness and distress,” said HRF’s coordination committee member Krishna. He stated that despairing farmers end their lives either by consuming pesticide or hanging themselves, as they are unable to repay their taken at high interest rates.

Krishna pointed out that families of these seven farmers have proof of land ownership recorded in their pattadar passbook. A few of them had additionally taken land on tenancy to eke out their living. He charged that the RDO-headed three-member verification and certification committee, or the mandal-level committee with MRO as chairman, did not visit the villages and inquire with families of farmers who had committed suicide to determine facts as mandated under G.O. 43. The fact-finding committee demanded that the government take concrete measures to ensure that all cases of farmers’ suicides are enquired into at the earliest and justice done to surviving families.