Farmer suicides leave kin high and dry

Adilabad: With breadwinners committing suicide owing to mounting debt burden, their families now live in pathetic conditions. Adilabad is a backward district in the State. Farmers largely depend on rain-fed agriculture as most parts of the district do not have proper irrigation facilities. Generally, the poor farmers raise crops by borrowing money from local moneylenders. There is no guarantee that they reap a good harvest because of vagaries of nature. The frequent crop failures and lack of remunerative price for agricultural produce in the market have led to spate of farmer suicides in the district.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), as many as 1,182 debt-ridden farmers committed suicide in the district between 1995 and 2016. After the formation of Telangana State, as many as 73 farmers ended their lives in 2014, 101 in 2015 and 24 in the first three months of 2016. Out of the total 198 families whose breadwinners committed suicide, only 38 families have so far been given the ex-gratia announced by the State government. This is largely attributed to “false” reports submitted by the three-member committees certifying suicide deaths.

The poor families, who lost their breadwinners, are finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet due to delay or non-payment of ex-gratia. They are also facing pressure from local moneylenders demanding repayment of debts.

Narrating their plight to The Hans India on Sunday, the kin of the suicide victims of Hasgul village said: “We are making rounds of the Mandal Revenue office seeking payment of ex gratia. But the Revenue officials are indifferent to our plight. The State government has failed to ensure payment of ex gratia to the families of all the suicide victims in the district.’’

As per the criteria, a three-member committee comprising the Tahsildar, local Sub-Inspector of Police and an official of the Agriculture Department should submit a report to the district authorities certifying the suicide death. As many as 14 documents need to be submitted as proof that the farmer committed suicide. In some cases, moneylenders and owners of fertiliser shops are reluctant to furnish information pertaining to the suicide death.

It is alleged that the committees are submitting reports without visiting the families of the farmers who committed suicide. As a result, some of the reports submitted by the committees are being rejected at the divisional level. A few affected families alleged that the submission of “false” reports was a deliberate attempt by some officials to show that only a few number of farmer committed suicides. Otherwise, the failure on the part of the State government to come to the rescue of the farmers’ families in distress would be exposed, they said.