Farmers in Telangana are distressed a lot due to rains. A delayed monsoon, unseasonal rains and unreliable power supply to agriculture pumpsets — in a state where farming is largely borewell dependent — are taking their toll, with mounting debts pushing farmers to the brink. Thousands of farmers, who took to streets protesting the erratic power supply last season, have all but given up hope.
Forty-nine-year-old Rachaboina Lakshmi from Mailaram village in Gajwel has said that I lost my husband Bala Goud. He hanged himself after he was severely depressed with the failure of borewells and crops, and mounting pressure from moneylenders to repay over `10 lakh, a debt burden we have even after selling six out of seven acres of agricultural land the family owned.
She adds that financial help from the government is still awaited. “We had pinned our hopes on the new state but things have worsened,” adds Lakshmi.
