Farmers suicides in Andhra have come down:YSR

Nainital, Sep 23 (UNI) Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy today claimed that the number of farmers' suicides in his state had come down drastically due to the collective impact of the initiatives taken by his government.

In a presentation at the Seventh Conclave of Chief Ministers of Congress-ruled States here, Mr Reddy said the Government had constituted a Cabinet Sub-Committee with a view to resolving the problem of farmers suicides.

The Sub-Committee has recommended a number of measures, including appointment of a commission on farmers welfare.

Accordingly, a Commission on farmers' welfare, headed by Prof Jayathi Ghosh, was constituted to study the reasons for farmers' distress in the State and for suggesting ways and means of tackling the problem.

The Government, he said, had also issued orders implementing a package which include provision of ex-gratia of Rs one lakh to rejuvenate the family of the distressed farmers and Rs 50,000 towards liquidation of farm debt.

The Chief Minister said the other measures taken and implemented by his State Government included construction of houses ,provision of self employment and sanction of pensions, bringing out a legislation of moratorium for six months on private money lenders, imposing of two year moratorium on credit recovery by commercial banks, sanction of foodgrains for employment generation in rural areas, implementation of food assurance programme and appointment of a single judge Judicial Enquiry into the suicides.

Referring to naxalite problem, the Chief Minister said while his Government had kept the doors open for the naxalites to have a dialogue, the Government's basic duty to uphold the law of the land coupled with aggressive development of tribal and interior areas continued unabated.

Power in democracy flew through the ballot, not bullet, Mr Reddy observed and said fired with this conviction a dialogue was initiated inviting extremists during 2004 to join the mainstream. Inspite of Government's honest endevour, the dialogue could not sustain since 2005.

The Chief Minister spelt out the various strategies adopted by his Government to tackle Maoist threat and LeT related threat. These included operational strategy and socio-economic strategy.

UNI YS/SH/AT RP DS1605