Date:23/12/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/12/23/stories/2004122305850500.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Deaths haunt farmer's family

By S. Ramu

GANGADEVIGUDEM (NALGONDA DT.), DEC. 22. Drought and death have been stalking the family of Kambalapalli Lingamma of this tiny village in Kattamgur mandal for the last five years. Her husband and three grown-up sons have died, leaving a bleak future for the four widows and eight children.

Lingamma suffered the first blow in 1999 when her elder son, Soma Lingaiah, died of fever. He is survived by wife and three children. Her second son, Saidulu, father of three, fell from a palm tree, the next year. It was another blow to the poor woman.

Distraught by the death of two sons, Lingamma's husband, Mallaiah, was bedridden for a couple of months and breathed his last at the end of 2002. The youngest member of the farming family, Sudhakar (27), shouldered the responsibility of the large family.

Borewells' failure

He was forced to borrow Rs.1.5 lakhs from various sources to cultivate eight acres, the only income-generating source for the family. He sunk four borewells, each costing Rs.11,000, to grow paddy. But luck did not favour him as no borewell yielded water. Moneylenders, on the other hand, started insisting on repayment. Sudhakar could not cope with the pressure. It was the latest blow for Lingamma.

"He left home on Sunday morning to wet the fields and did not return. We found him with froth at the mouth near our home. He died while being shifted to hospital in Nakrekal,'' Lingamma, who was in an inconsolable mood of despair, told The Hindu . The entire village is in the grip of sorrow. ``We need a minimum of Rs.2 lakhs to clear the debts. I don't know how to sail through this phase in these twilight days,'' Lingamma said. She has appealed to the Collector, K. Vijayanand, to help her family.