Hyderabad: A tenant farmer attempted to commit suicide by consuming pesticide at Gandhi Bhavan, the state Congress headquarters, here on Friday over the government refusing to provide assistance.
Police said the farmer, identified as D. Venkateswarlu of Kusumanchi mandal of Khammam district, reached Gandhi Bhavan even as party leaders were discussing political issues, and began consuming pesticide that he had brought with him.
Bystanders and Congress activists who noticed him rushed to him and grabbed the pesticide container. However, Mr Venkateswarlu had consumed some pesticide and fell to the floor. He was shifted to Osmania Hospital in an ambulance.
Police said Mr Venkateswarlu had two letters with him, one to the agriculture minister and another to caretaker Chief Minister K. Chandrasekar Rao.
In the letter to the minister, he wrote: “Is this the interest that you are paying to tenant farmers? About 50 per cent of the farmers are tenants. You are paying Rs 4,000 and giving them insurance too, but it seems that you don’t have any benefits. We are shown less respect than dogs.”
“Many of the tenant farmers are committing suicide just like me as most of us are in debt. During Kiran Kumar Reddy’s tenure they said they would give something to the tenant farmers, but the government was replaced after Telangana state was formed. You are organising many meetings by investing crores of rupees but you don’t have money for the poor like me.”
In the letter addressed to the Chief Minister, he wrote, “I’m leading my life as a tenant farmer. As there was no proper yield due to water scarcity, I had borrowed some amount. Now I have to pay back Rs 9 lakh. So I decided to commit suicide as I can’t bear the pressure. Kindly help my family.”
The police has not registered any case as the victim was not in a condition to talk. Osmania Hospital officials confirmed that the patient had been admitted and was in a slightly serious condition. Mr Venkateshwarlu is currently undergoing treatment.
The government had stoutly refused to give tenant farmers the Rythu Bandhu assistance of Rs 4,000 per acre per season, arguing that the measure would be tantamount to providing them legal rights on the land.
