ANANTAPUR: Bharatiya Janata Party vice-president M. Venkaiah Naidu has asked the Centre to constitute a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to probe the problem of farmers' suicides occurring at an alarming rate in particular and the crisis in the agricultural sector in general.

Speaking to mediapersons here on Tuesday, he said the special relief package announced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala had failed to prove as useful as was being claimed. It had failed to stop suicides in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, he pointed out.

Mr Naidu said that some 650 farmers had committed suicide in the region after the Prime Minister's visit. Waiver of interest to some extent and rescheduling of the principal amount was not the relief required by farmers, he said.

Ruling out the possibility of a tie-up with the TDP again in future, Mr. Venkaiah Naidu said the BJP was planning to consolidate its position in the State.

Asked whether BJP's plans to introduce a private bill on Telangana was not vote bank politics he said they were ready to withdraw their plan and support the bill if introduced by the Congress.

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