Even as the Telangana Government admitted that 409 farmers committed suicide in the State during one year period since June last, reports of more such incidents were continuing with at an alarming rate.
The State Agriculture Minister P Srinivas Reddy refuted the claims of the Opposition parties that more than thousand farmers had committed suicide since the formation of Telangana State.
But the spate of reports in the local media suggest that every day more and more distressed farmers were resorting to the extreme step in the drought-hit Telangana. There were reports of five more suicides on Thursday in the State, three of them in Karimnagar district.
45-year-old Ganga Raju died after consuming pesticides in Tatlawai village under Raikal Mandal. Another suicide was reported form Balapur village under Korutla mandal and a third farmer Prabhakar Reddy committed suicide in Mamidipally village in Veenavanka village. Two suicides were reported from Medak, the home district of the CM K Chandrasekhar Rao. All the suicides were attributed to the debt burden of the farmers.
Pocharam Srinivas Reddy said that despite welfare measures of the State Government, 409 farmers had committed suicide from June 2 last year to June 24 this year.
But the State Congress has alleged the number of suicides was more than 1,300, the Telugu Desam alleged that 1,182 farmers had committed suicide so far. Meanwhile, the incidents of farmer suicides in Andhra Pradesh had their echo in the State Assembly. leader of Opposition YS Jaganmohan Reddy alleged that 197 farmers had committed suicide in the State in the last one year.