Hyderabad: Farmer organisations are castigating the BRS regime for having systematically playing down the figures with regard to farmers dying by suicide across the state, after the launch of the Rythu Bhima life insurance scheme on August 15, 2018. From a high of 908 in 2018, the number of farmer suicides, according to government records, fell to 499 in 2019 after the launch of the scheme and further to 179 last year. However, activists of Rythu Swarajya Vedika (RSV) which has fought cases on behalf of tenant farmers who have been denied compensation, peg the number of suicides of farmers in 2023 at 420. These include figures accessed from the District Crime Records Bureau and media reports, which specifically attributed farm distress as the cause for resorting to the extreme step. The BRS government had abandoned the process of enumerating farmer deaths and verification to settle family debts mandated under GO 194, after bringing in Rythu Bhima. The GO 194 process involved a probe by a three-member committee of police, revenue and agriculture departments at the mandal and district levels after which Rs 6 lakh was given to the families of the deceased. This was done to ensure that debts standing in the name of farmers are settled, once and for all. This process helped families to move ahead in life without being bogged down by piled-up debt, says B. Kondal Reddy, RSV activist. Highlighting the impact of abandoning the process was the case of S. Saritha, wife of S. Srinivas from Rekonda village of Chigurumamidi mandal of Karimnagar district. Although he died in 2016, the family is still to get any compensation under GO 194. “I went around the government offices for four to five months holding my three-year-old baby but none of the officials took mercy. The debt was incurred as both maize and cotton crops were destroyed due to rains and pests. Applications were sought from us for 2BHK houses just before the 2023 elections, though I had applied earlier.” Many aggrieved families received compensation only after orders were passed by the High Court in PIL No. 101/2022. The case forced the government to hold an inquiry again as ordered and 58 families got compensation of Rs 6 lakh as per GO 194. The implementation of this GO should not be linked to Rythu Bhima, which can be availed by only land-owning farmers and not tenant farmers, Kondal Reddy said. The woes of the family of K. Sreenu, 38, from Papakkapalli village of Jammikunta mandal of Karimnagar district, who ended his life on June 2, 2023, illustrated the lack of government support for tenant farmers. His wife K. Sravanthi, 36, said: “My husband incurred a debt of Rs 7 lakh over an area of five acres. We were told that we will not get any compensation as we don’t have any land, while a land-owning family from my village received Rs 5 lakh. No officer came to us. I have taken 1.5 acres of land on lease again and work on daily-wage basis. The interest on the loans taken has been pending for 10 months now. I have no idea on how I will repay the dues.” Meanwhile, Sarampally Malla Reddy, vice-president, All India Kisan Sabha, said, “The KCR government amended Section 26 of the 1971 Passbook Act to remove the requirement of recording of the status of the person who tilled the land. This left 75 per cent of the real cultivators left out of the records.” “The reasons behind the death of farmers are spurious seeds, lack of institutional credit, compensation during natural calamities, lack of MSP for crops and wrong export, import policies which distort prices of farm produce,” Malla Reddy said. Prof. Aldas Janaiah, noted agricultural economist and former professor at the Jaishankar Telangana State agricultural University, said, “During the BRS regime the spurious seeds industry had a field day and the seed industry for which Telangana was a hub lost some of them to other states. The number of registered farmers has also come down as there were no incentives for the industry. The seed corporation was headed by a person deputed from the agriculture university and currently stands suspended from the post on charges of wrongdoing. Fake seeds, which fail to give proper yield, are also driving farmers to suicides.” Farmer suicide data as provided by the BRS government. Year No of suicides 2014 1.347 2015 1.400 2016 645 2017 851 2018 908 2019 499 2020 471 2021 352 2022 408 2023 179 Total 7,060
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