Judicial probe into farmers' suicides

Following a heated exchange between the treasury benches and the opposition in the state Assembly over the farmers' suicides, the state government on Monday announced a judicial probe into all such instances which had happened in the past 10 years.

Taking exception to the criticism of the opposition TDP over the alleged failure of the government in containing suicides, chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy came down heavily on the previous regime led by Naidu for the present state of affairs in the agriculture sector.

Participating in a discussion on the problem faced by farmers in the state, opposition leader N Chandrababu Naidu accused the government of not doing anything substantial to stop the farmers from committing suicides. He said that suicides have been on the rise ever since Congress party took over the reigns of the state.

Replying to the discussion, the chief minister said that it would take some more time to set things right which went wrong during the past nine years.

"You neglected the problems faced by farmers and the farm sector for such a long period which culminated into acute distress conditions. Now you blame the Congress government for the farmers' suicides. You always tried to sweep the problem of suicides under the carpet. We are transparent and are trying to tackle the problem," the chief minister said.

When temperatures rose over the issue, the chief minister announced that the government would appoint a judicial enquiry to fix responsibility for the suicides of farmers during the previous TDP regime and the two- month rule of the new Congress government.