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According to the official figures as many as 20 farmers have committed suicide in the last forty days in the state, 11 of them in Anantapur district alone.
The suicide figure was confirmed by Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy after the opposition Telugu Desam Party's alleged that more than 70 farmers had committed suicide due to the drought conditions.
"The opposition is indulging in false propaganda and exaggerating the numbers," the Chief Minister reacted.
Even before the echoes of the CM's statements could die down, two more farmers committed suicide in Nizamabad and Medak district taking the official figure to 22. While Adilabad has seen four suicides, three suicides each were reported from Warangal and Medak so far.
But the state government was yet to confirm that the drought conditions and the failure of crops was the reason for the farmers to take the extreme steps. "The officials are undertaking an in-debt probe to find out the reasons,' the Chief Minister said.
Even as the state was facing a grim situation due to the scanty rainfall, politicking has begun over the massive natural disaster resulting in serious crisis in agriculture sector. The leader of opposition N Chandrababu Naidu was visiting Mehbubnagar district on Sunday to talk to the farmers and assess the drought situation.
The Chief Minister on the other hand announced his plans to visit the rural areas from September 2 to be with the farmers in the hours of crisis. He asked his ministers to do the same and announced that a control room will be set up in Hyderabad to closely monitor the situation.
The state has recorded a whopping 57% deficit in the rainfall till now and the situation was unlikely to improve in the short term. It has resulted in more than 50% fall in the sowing areas of the state.
Normally sowing is done over an area of 79 lakh hectares for Kharif but this year crops were sown only on an area of 40 lakh hectares. But with the dry spell continuing and water level touching an all time low in all the major reservoirs, there was not much hope even for the sown crops.
The farmers who had borrowed heavily from the private lenders were the most vulnerable as they were not in a position to clear the debt because of the wilting crops.
While AP had suffered seven years of drought from 1995 to 2004, this is the first time after five years that monsoon had miserably failed in the state.
Meanwhile, the state agriculture minister K Raghuveera Reddy announced starting of a 24-hour helpline for the farmers in his home district of Anantapur. The people can lodge their complaints regarding the water scarcity, electricity problems and seek information regarding the alternative crops, the minister said.