Reportedly upset with falling market price for paddy, a 35-year-old farmer allegedly attempted suicide by consuming pesticide at Peramana village, near Sangam, in SPSR Nellore district on Tuesday.
The tenant farmer, Kiran Reddy, who was staging a protest in-front of Tahsildar's office at Sangam along with fellow farmers, allegedly took the extreme step when there was no positive response from the revenue officials concerned to lift their produce offering minimum support price fixed by the government.
Fellow farmers rushed him in a critical condition to the Government Hospital at Atmakur and then to a private hospital in Nellore for better treatment. Those having suicidal tendency could dial 100 for counselling, the Sangam police said.
The farmer took on lease 80 acres of land and reportedly incurred heavy losses last year due to lack of remunerative price for his produce then. Selling his two acres of land, he grew paddy again this year taking on lease 40 acres of land. He was clueless on selling his produce this year too, said the farmers, who sat with heaps of paddy in front of the Tahsildar's office as a mark of protest.
Meanwhile, a delegation of TDP leaders led by party polit bureau member Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy called on Kiran Reddy at the hospital here and wished him speedy recovery.
Farmers from across the district would stage a massive protest on Wednesday to exert pressure on the YSR Congress Party government to procure all paddy from the growers as promised.
Farmers were resorting to distress sale to private traders who ruled the roost in the wake of the Jagan Mohan Reddy government’s alleged failure to ensure market intervention by the Farmers Assurance Centres, said former Mayor Abdul Azeez.
