Southern States - Andhra Pradesh   

Farmers' suicide: NHRC intervention sought

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD DEC. 8. The Leader of the Opposition, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, in a letter to the NHRC Chairman here on Sunday accused the Government of deliberately neglecting the farm sector leading to a number of farmers committing suicide. He sought a probe into the tragedy while urging the Commission to direct the Government to pay adequate compensation to the bereaved families.

The Government should be hauled up for violation of human rights as the cause for the suicide was bad governance and forcible collections of dues, Dr. Rajasekhara Reddy said. Drawing the NHRC attention to the admission of the Chief Minister, N.Chandrababu Naidu (in his discussions with the relief team sent by the Centre recently), that over 1,000 farmers had committed suicide during the last five years, he said the figure in fact was as high as over 2,000.

During a discussion on the issue in Parliament, the Central Government too had admitted that out of 495 farmers committing suicide, 385 were from AP alone which reflected on the gravity of the situation. The suicide continued unabated and newspapers had reported 196 such deaths in 2001 and 227 up to December 5 this year. In Anantapur district alone, 15 farmers had committed suicide in the last 35 days, he said.

Listing the names of victims and district-wise break-up, he said the "indifferent attitude'' of the Government was the main reason. Crop failures, inability to repay loans taken from private moneylenders, exorbitant power bills and high input costs were driving the farmers to suicide.

Dr. Rajasekhara Reddy said the Government was according step-motherly treatment to the agricultural sector. The Sisodia Committee report prepared for the Planning Commission pointed out that only Rs. 74 per hectare was being spent on agriculture, an all-time low compared to other States. Another peculiar aspect was that though the Government claimed to have spent Rs. 9,000 crores on irrigation from 1983-84 onwards, the irrigation potential had come down to 16.49 lakh hectares under projects and 7.27 lakh hectares under tanks. In 1983-84 it was 18.39 lakh hectares and 10.87 lakh hectares.

Dr. Reddy said the Government should go to the rescue of farmers by providing relief. Instead, it had taken an anti-farmer stand by permitting cooperative banks and the Electricity Department to resort to coercive collection of arrears of loans and bills. Invoking the provisions of the AP Revenue Recovery Act against hapless farmers on the verge of committing suicide was the worst-ever act of the Government, he said. He urged the Commission to take note of the facts and order compensation to the bereaved families by making the Government liable. Further, he pleaded for the inclusion of his name or that of his nominee in the enquiry committee. Journalists should also be involved in establishing the Government's "apathy'' and the public enquiry must be conducted in villages where suicide had been committed.

He said the farming community of Andhra Pradesh was looking forward to such an intervention by the NHRC.

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