Farmer suicides in Telangana on steep decline: Palla Rajeshwar Reddy

Hyderabad: Condemning a section of media reports that Telangana is having the highest number of farmer suicides compared to other States in India, BRS MLC and Rythu Bandu Samithi chairman Palla Rajeshwar Reddy said that these reports were baseless and these were designed to malign the image of the State government.

Speaking at a press conference here on Saturday, Rajeshwar Reddy along with MLCs Basavaraju Saraiah, V Gangadhar Goud and Tata Madhu said that the Niti Aayog had appreciated in its reports saying that the BRS government's welfare measures to farmers were very encouraging and the suicides of farmers were drastically come down by 300 percent in Telangana compared to the previous years.

According to official records, 1300 farmers committed suicide in 2014. However, this number is confined to 352 this year. Now, Telangana is only the State being declined the number of farmers' suicide cases in the country, Rajeshwar Reddy said.

Stating that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has initiated various schemes for the welfare of farmers, the Rythu Bandhu Samithi Chairman said that under the Rythu Beema scheme, about Rs.4,770 crores were paid to those family members of 95,399 farmers who died due to various reasons.

He also found fault with an NGO, Rythu Swarajya Vedika, YSRCP Telangana president Sharmila and Andhra Jyothi media house for spewing venom against the BRS government on the farmers' suicides and questioned why they were remained silent when the union government reduced the budget to Telangana under the Prime Minister Kisan Nidhi scheme.

"There is no single scheme which is being benefited to farmers being implemented by the union government.

Prime Minister's prestigious Pasal Beema Yojana scheme is not being implemented even in Gujarat State," Palla Rajeshwar Reddy pointed out.