Neck-deep in debt, a young farmer from Warangal district created a flutter on Tuesday afternoon when he climbed a cell phone tower near the Telangana Assembly and threatened to jump off. After relentless cajoling by Police Inspector Prakash Reddy, who assured all help, Sammayya gave in and climbed down. He was shifted to a hospital for tests.

Sammayya had borrowed ₹2 lakh to fund inputs for his four-acre plot. As his crop failed, he saw no solution but to end his life.

His is not a lone affair. Over 1,300 farmers have committed suicide in the 16 months after the State was carved out of Andhra Pradesh. This is also not the only incident of its kind. Earlier, two other farmers from Telangana’s interior villages have travelled to the capital. They, however, met with death.

The Sammayya episode reflects the grave situation among farmers in the new State. Ironically, the Assembly had begun discussion on the issue only a few hours prior to the incident, with the Opposition blaming the government for its indifference to the crisis.

HC directive The government has been in denial mode, discounting the death toll and claiming that the reasons were unrelated to the farm crisis. The State High Court has taken cognizance of the situation and served notices on the governments of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to come out with a status report on the issue.

Govt cornered Taking pot shots at Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who claimed that he has been earning ₹1 crore from his farm in Medak, MIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisi and TDP leader Errabelli Dayakar Rao asked him to help the farmers replicate the success.

Akbaruddin said scores of farmers committed suicide in a State that claimed to be the second richest after Gujarat. “It is happening even in districts where there was sufficient rainfall. Hundreds of posts in the Agriculture Department are vacant. The government must fill up those vacancies,” he said.

Dayakar Rao wanted the government to convince the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) to buy produce at ₹5,000 a quintal. “Sowing had fallen by half. All major crops, including cotton and paddy, had shown a fall of about 50 per cent due to poor rainfall,” he said.

Congress legislator Jeevan Reddy felt the crisis had worsened because of the piecemeal approach in waiver of farm loans.

Earlier making a statement in the House, Agriculture Minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy said there was a deficit of 66 per cent in rainfall, which had adversely impacted the kharif season. “Keeping in mind the acute distress, the government is mulling to extend the ex-gratia cover (₹6 lakh) for farmers who ended their life from June 2, 2014.”

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