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'One farmer ending life every 3 hours in Telangana

Hyderabad: The opposition Congress on Thursday described the crisis in the farm sector in Telangana as alarming, alleging that one debt-ridden farmer was committing suicide every three hours in the State.
Leader of the Opposition in the Telangana Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir, slamming the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government for what he termed as utter neglect of the farmers in the State, said: "The State government failed to respond to the Congress demand in the past month for a special session of the State Legislature to discuss the agrarian crisis. A concrete assurance to the farming community would have prevented the spate of suicides reported from various parts of the State in the past few weeks.
However, due to the State government's continued negligence and lethargic attitude, the situation has turned from bad to worse where one farmer is committing suicide every three hours."
The Congress leader was speaking to the media after a party delegation called on the family of farmer B Limbadari at his residence in Ramareddy village in Nizamabad district. The delegation handed over a cheque of Rs100,000 to the family of Limbadari who committed suicide by hanging from an electricity pole at Lower Tank Bund in Hyderabad on Wednesday.
Shabbir Ali said Limbadari's suicide, just a kilometre away from the State Secretariat, should serve as an eye-opener to the TRS administration.
"The situation might go out of control if immediate steps are not taken to prevent further suicides by farmers. The TRS leaders should rise above party lines to address the issue," he said, and reiterated his party's demand for a special session of the State Legislature, where all parties should speak only on farmers' issues without indulging in politics.
Stating that everyone must accept the responsibility for these suicides and jointly act to avoid recurrence of such incidents, the Congress leader pointed out that Telangana was now on top when it came to farmers' suicide and this must be stopped.
Shabbir Ali demanded that the State Government revise the government order issued by the then Congress Government in June 2004, to increase the compensation amount for families of deceased farmers from the present Rs150,000 to Rs500,000. Further, the government should immediately waive off the remaining half of crop loans and take steps to provide fresh loans to farmers, he said.

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