PRESS RELEASE Date: August 1, 2015

Agriculture is the mainstay of Telangana society but has been in crisis for the past two decades. This is starkly visible in the fact that 28,000 farmers have committed suicide in the past 20 years. Today, Telangana has the highest number of farmer suicides per capita in the country. Lakhs of farmers are continuing to suffer with debt burden, crop failure, lack of remunerative prices, high private investment into borewells, and lack of support systems from the government.

This crisis of the farming community is a policy-driven crisis. Though the governments have changed and different parties have been in power, the government policies have been such that farmers’ livelihoods have been consigned to low priority with the underlying push towards corporate-controlled agriculture. Due to this, the farming community is unable to come out of the crisis and the farmer suicides are continuing.

In this context, several farmer organizations, activists, intellectuals and scientists have come together for a united struggle to address the farmers’ issues in Telangana, and form the “Telangana Rythu J.A.C.” The main aim of the Rythu JAC is to build a united movement to address the problems of the farming community and to build a Telangana which is free of farmer suicides.

Objectives of JAC

1.  Policy changes which protect agricultural community from corporate domination, and ensure them assured income.

2.  Support for agricultural methods which conserve the soil, water, farm ecology, biodiversity and environment.

3.  Ensure the rights of farming community including adivasis over the natural resources, especially land, water, forests and seed.

4.  Prevent farmers’ distress and suicides.

Action Program

Beginning from the first week of August, the Telangana Rythuu JAC will visit drought-affected villages, farmer suicide families and mobilize farmers for solving immediate problems. Rythu JAC places the following immediate demands before the Telangana government.

Immediate Demands

1.  The compensation for Farmer Suicide families should be increased to Rs.5 lakhs. The ongoing farmer suicides should be recognized with minimum delay and the families should be provided with ex-gratia, loan waiver, medical and education facilities and livelihood opportunities.

2.  Immediate crop compensation should be issued to all farmers who suffered crop loss in the past one year due to drought, hailstorms and unseasonal rainfall. In the current season with erratic monsoon and deficient rainfall, immediate steps should be taken to protect farmers.

3.  The banks should treat all the outstanding loans of farmers eligible for loan waiver as the responsibility of the government, and waive the loans from the farmers’ accounts. Full crop loans as per scale finance should be immediately issued to all farmers including tenant farmers.

Rythu JAC Ad-hoc Committee

An ad-hoc committee has been formed for coordinating the activities of the Telangana Rythu JAC under the convenorship of Prof. L. Jalapathi Rao, eminent agricultural scientist who has been working for farmers’ cause for a long time. The list of Ad-hoc committee members is being released to the media.

Telangana Rythu JAC Ad-hoc Committee Members

No. / Name / Organization
1 / Prof. L. Jalapathi Rao / Convenor – Telangana Rythu JAC
2 / Prof. M. Kodandram / Rythu JAC
3 / Prof. K.R.Chowdhry / Rythu JAC
4 / Prof. Althas Janaiah / Rythu JAC
5 / Dr. G.V.Ramanjaneyulu / Rythu JAC
6 / Dr. Usha Seethalakshmi / Rythu Swarajya Vedika
7 / Ravi Kanneganti / Rythu Swarajya Vedika
8 / Kirankumar Vissa / Rythu Swarajya Vedika
9 / Sridhar Reddy / Bharatiya Kisan Sangh
10 / Varyada Anji Reddy / Bharatiya Kisan Sangh
11 / K. Achyutha Rama Rao / All India Kisan Mazdoor Sabha
12 / Mandala Venkanna / All India Kisan Mazdoor Sabha
13 / Pakala Srihari Rao / Telangana Rythu Rakshana Samiti
14 / P. Shankar / Dalit Bahujan Front
15 / Mortala Chandar Rao / Telangana Rythu Sangham
16 / Maccha Vidyasagar Rao / Telangana Rythanga Samiti
17 / Narsimha Reddy / Telangana Rythanga Samiti
18 / Gurijala Ravindar Rao / Telangana Vidyavantula Vedika
19 / Venkat Reddy / Telangana Rashtra Rythu Aikya Vedika
20 / Ashalatha / Mahila Kisan Adhikar Manch
21 / Narsimha Naidu / Pasupu Rythula Sangham
22 / Ashok Kumar / Deputy Director, Agriculture (Retd)
23 / Sadananda Rao / Ex-MLA, Nalgonda district
24 / Nynala Govardhan / Telangana Jala Sadhana Samiti
25 / Vithal Rao Arya / Arya Samaj
26 / K. Parvatalu / Dalit Bahujan Coolie Rythu Sangham
27 / Kanakavva / Rythu Aatmahatya Badhita Kutumbala Vedika

Issued by: Prof. L. Jalapathi Rao, Convenor, Telangana Rythu JAC

For more details, contact: Vissa Kirankumar: 9701705743, Kanneganti Ravi: 9912928422