Jana Sena Party president K. Pawan Kalyan on Saturday said he would launch ‘Farmers Odarpu Yatra’ this month in the Godavari region to console and extend financial support to the families of the tenant farmers who ended their lives due to agrarian crisis since mid-2019 in the State.
Participating in Ugadi celebrations in Hyderabad on Saturday, Mr. Pawan accompanied by the party’s Political Affairs Committee Chairman Nadendla Manohar, announced that the Jana Sena Party would provide an ex-gratia of ₹1 lakh to the kin of the tenant farmers who ended their lives due to agrarian distress.
“The aid we announced is nominal. It is only to provide immediate relief from the distress to the family that lost a tenant farmer. I will meet every family of the tenant farmers who ended their lives during the yatra and give a patient hearing to their struggles,” said Mr. Pawan.
“Dubbed as a rice bowl, the Godavari region has witnessed suicides by 80 tenant farmers since mid-2019. The State government has stopped bothering about the problems of farmers in this region,” he said.
Meanwhile, the party has set April 30 as the deadline for release of the ₹7 lakh aid to each of the kin of the tenant farmers who committed suicide, as per GO No.43. “The Jana Sena Party is with the farmers and the purpose of the yatra is to prevent the alarming rate at which farmers have been ending their lives,” he said.
The JSP chief said that 80% of the farmers were under the tenancy and all of them were small farmers . “Lack of minimum support price, particularly for paddy, has mostly pushed the tenant farmers to the extreme step. We appeal to the farmers to fight for their entitlements instead of ending their lives,” he said.
Mr. Manohar said last week he visited some of the distressed families and prepared the ground report on the farmers’ suicides in the Godavari region.
