The Hindu : Front Page : More suicides in Karimnagar district

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Friday, Oct 03, 2008
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More suicides in Karimnagar district

N. Rahul

DAMAGE CONTROL: District Collector Sandeep Sultania interacting with women after launching a counselling centre on Thursday.

HYDERABAD: Three more weavers died in Karimnagar district on Thursday even as Collector Sandeep Sultania launched a counselling centre-cum-helpline for the distressed weavers.

One weaver in the crisis-ridden Sircilla town ended his life while another also committed suicide at Garshakurthi of Gangadhara mandal elsewhere in the district. The third case was that of a weaver who died of a kidney ailment at Thangallapalli village, located adjacent to Sircilla.

Galipalli Laxman (55) was found hanging from a tree in the bushes at an isolated place leading to Manair stream. Sircilla Sub-Inspector Samala Upender said that Laxman, a powerloom worker, had stopped working for the last eight months as he was suffering from tuberculosis. At Garshakurthi, P. Raju (35) committed self-immolation unable to make both ends meet. Police said he was employed at a handloom unit until recently. Following its closure, he was learning tailoring.

Viswanathula Jagannatham (65) who died at his house was suffering from a kidney ailment for the last three months.

The death toll of weavers has gone up to 20, including 11 cases of suicide, in the last one month. A handloom worker and two others of powerloom sector died on Wednesday.

At the counselling centre inaugurated by the Collector at B.Y. Nagar, the community poured out its woes of poverty and sufferings on health front. The centre will be run by an NGO -- Krushi.

The weavers appealed to the Collector to release pension for the aged and the handicapped. The story of a family whose breadwinner Davanapalli Gangaram who died of illness on Wednesday moved the residents of B.Y. Nagar. They pooled money to perform his last rites. Gangaram is survived by wife Lata, who bears a huge patch of burns sustained on her neck, and two children. The family shifted to Sircilla from their native Bhiwandi in Maharashtra a year ago.

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