Times
of India: Hyderabad: Wednesday, 17 February 2016.
The Telangana
Rashtra Samiti (TRS) has pulled off huge victories in the recent polls held in
the city and Narayankhed, but its report card when it comes to assisting
families of farmers who committed suicide falls far below expectations.
In what is
being seen as a failure to keep its promises, only 10 farmer families have
received the enhanced ex gratia of Rs 6 lakh so far in the state. This was
revealed by Right to Information (RTI) activists and farmer organisations that
conducted independent field surveys in nine districts of the state.
In September
and October 2015, the Telangana government, amid much fanfare, had issued two
orders (GO 173 and GO 194). The first order enhanced the ex gratia to kin of
farmers who ended their lives from Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 6 lakh. The second order
brought all farmer suicides since June 2, 2014 (when Telangana was formed after
bifurcation) under the first order's ambit.
"When
information furnished by collectors on the enhanced ex gratia was analysed, it
was found that only 10 families in seven mandals of Ranga Reddy district in the
entire state received Rs 6 lakh," said city-based RTI activist Bakka
Judson. The families belonged to Maheshwaram, Chevella, Vikarabad, Marpally,
Pargi, Tandur and Bantawara mandals.
The data
accessed by Judson from the district collectorates showed that around 200
families, which got the official approval for the enhanced ex gratia-cum-loan
settlement scheme, were given only Rs 1.5 lakh as per the old scheme. For
instance, out of 67 families approved for the scheme in chief minister K
Chandrasekhar Rao's home district of Medak, not a single family received the
promised increase in compensation.
Responding to
an RTI query on the matter on January 11, 2016, the public information officer
of the Medak collector only had this to say: "This information is not
available in this office." The same responses were given by officials in
the case of Adilabad, Warangal and Mahbubnagar as well.
In fact,
activists also estimated that over 70% of the claims made by families for ex
gratia have been rejected on grounds such as the victims not owning the land,
borewell failure, house construction and marriages of children.
"Only 10
to 20% of suicides have been considered for ex gratia," said B Kondal
Reddy, an activist associated with the NGO Rythu Swarajya Vedika, which via an
independent survey concluded that 1,980 farmers committed suicide in Telangana
since June, 2014.
"I made
dozens of rounds of government offices after my husband, Vallepu Kistaiah,
hanged himself in Dacharam village in Gajwel mandal in December 2014, aggrieved
over the failure of cotton crop in six acres of leased land. We were denied ex
gratia on the ground that my husband was a tenant farmer," said Vallepu
Yadamma from Gajwel constituency. She now lives as a daily wage labourer and
struggles to bring up her two minor children.
The same
plight was echoed by Vadde Yadagiri, her neighbour, and husband of Vadde
Narsavva, who ended her life in December 2014, aggrieved over the failure of a
borewell. "Officials could not give the reason for our ex gratia claim
being rejected," said Yadagiri.
.JPG)
.JPG)
