Barely four days after Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan expressed concern over “the stressful conditions” in Telangana and presented statistics – 22 suicides per day or “about one per hour”, a farmer, accompanied by family, attempted self-immolation right in front of Pragathi Bhavan, chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao's palatial office cum residence in Begumpet, on Monday.
On the same day, a sarpanch-ward member couple in Nizamabad also tried to immolate themselves, dousing petrol, at the district collectorate complex.
The attributed reason for their suicide decision is administrative apathy and corruption of officials. Their bids were foiled in time by the police and people present around.
In the first case, one Ilaiah from Ibrahimpatnam, who reportedly came along with his wife and three children, complained of denial of compensation for his land acquired by the government and doused himself with kerosene.
In the Nizamabad case, S Vani, Nandipet sarpanch, and her husband Tirupati, a ward member, alleged that pending bills of village development works, “which pushed them into over Rs two crore debt” were not being cleared even after many appeals.
Opposition parties and local media reports point to the steady occurrence of such suicides or attempts by village heads in recent years in Telangana. These sarpanches had spent loaned money taken on interest for Panchayat works but were not reimbursed the dues by the state government as assured.
The latest such death was on 31 December, when 35-year-old Balineni Tirupati, deputy sarpanch, Chidinepally in Jayashankar Bhupalpally district consumed pesticide. He was unable to repay the Rs 15 lakh private loans he took to complete the construction of Rythu-vedika (farmer platforms), and for development works like street lights installation.
The mounting pressure from money lenders and financial problems reportedly forced Tirupati's wife to take the extreme step a few months earlier.
Incidentally, both Tirupatis are affiliated with the ruling BRS.
Telangana Congress president Revanth Reddy says that at least 60 sarpanches have died by suicide till now in Telangana “as the negligent KCR government withheld their Gram Panchayat funds for years and continues to weaken the sarpanch system.”
“KCR is damaging the self-esteem of sarpanches. (Unable to bear the loan burden and shame), some of them are ending their lives while some are pledging their wives mangalsutras (wedding necklace) for repayments,” Revanth charged while demanding Rs one crore compensation for each bereaved family.
The opposition Congress, which had earlier this month held a protest to highlight the plight of sarpanches, is accusing the BRS government of diverting thousands crores of funds meant for the Panchayats towards payments of contractors.
Meanwhile, farm sector experts-activists are differing with Telangana Rythu Bandhu Samiti chairman Rajeshwar Reddy's claim on Monday that farmer suicides are near to nil in the state, because of “the pro-farmer policies of KCR like Rythu Bandhu (annual Rs 10,000 per acre grant), Rythu Bima, free power for agriculture.”
The BRS MLC was refuting TBJP chief Bandi Sanjay's allegation of 10,000 farmer suicides in Telangana in the last eight years.
Though the alarming number of farmer suicides earlier fell relatively, the claim of “no actual farm suicide”, Rythu Swaraja Vedika, a grassroots NGO operating across Telangana, says is far from true.
“The state government and NCRB reports for last year will take time. But as per our survey, 403 farmers ended their lives in Telangana in 2022 because of farm-related issues,” Kondal Reddy, state committee member, RSV tells DH.
The Telangana police figures for 2019 and 2020 are 499 and 471 respectively.