In yet another effort to prove that his government is pro-farmer, YSR Congress party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Wednesday announced payment of Rs 7 lakh to each of the families of those farmers who had committed suicide owing to debt burden in the last five years.
Jagan, who held a videoconference with district collectors and superintendents of police in the Secretariat, directed that all the families of the farmers who had committed suicide between 2014 and 2019 be given Rs 7 lakh each.
He also announced enactment of a law to ensure that the compensation being paid to the families of suicide victims did not get diverted and no other person other than the family could claim the money.
Quoting district crime records bureau statistics, Jagan said as many as 1,513 farmers had committed suicide in the last five years.
But the previous Telugu Desam Party government headed by N Chandrababu Naidu had given compensation to only 391 farmers’ families.
“It clearly showed the previous government had miserably failed to come to the rescue of farmers,” the chief minister said.
He directed that the officials verify the data and if there were any families eligible to get the compensation could be given the money immediately.
He also asked the officials to take the local MLAs into confidence and implement the programme.
“If there is any such unwarranted incident of suicide of a farmer or a tenant farmer, the district collector should immediately respond. They should not wait for directions from the chief minister’s office,” Jagan said.