TCC to seek WHO study on suicides

HYDERABAD: Perturbed over the increasing incidence of suicides in the Telangana region, the Telangana Coordination Committee has decided to represent to the World Health Organisation (WHO) to study the suicidal tendencies and come up with measures to be taken to contain the contagion.The TCC was formed among others by Dr A Gopala Kishan, former DGP Pervaram Ramulu and educ a t ioni s t Chukka Ramaiah.According to committee members, as many as 851 youths have committed suicide in the region in the last two years.Gopala Kishan, chairman of the committee, said the number of deaths reported during the movement was more than the number of victims in an epidemic in the state in recent times.Therefore, he said, they would request the WHO to study the suicidal tendencies among the Telangana youth, by treating it as an epidemic.“If 200 killings by the army in Syria can become an international issue, why not the Telangana suicides?’’ he asked.Committee member and senior psychiatrist Prof MAM Khan said that for every suicide reported, 20,000 people in the vicinity of the person who commits suicide, are likely to come under its influence and might imbibe suicidal tendencies.“This alone points to the fact that one suicide might lead to many,” he said.Most of the Telangana people had been under stress during the last couple of years because of delay in formation of a separate state, Khan said and that the continuous stress may lead to increased blood pressure, phobia, anxiety, criminal behaviour, aggression, violence, etc.The committee, which had toured the whole of Telangana region, observed this kind of behaviour among the common people across the region, Khan said.Pervaram Ramulu said youths in the region were taking the extreme step as they saw no hope of achieving statehood to the region.He said that the political parties and public representatives in the state lacked commitment in responding in accordance with the wishes of the people.The committee members opined that Congress chief whip Gandra Venkataramana Reddy’s statement that there was no Telangana sentiment drove Bhojya Naik to suicide in Warangal a few days ago.The committee is also going t o submit a representation to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) soon on the issue.P M Bhargava Joins T ChorusHYDERABAD: Scientist P M Bhargava on Wednesday added his voice of support to the Telangana elected reps agitating in Parliament and the state legislature.Speaking to newsmen at a meet-thepress programme organised by the Telangana Coordination Committee, the former chief of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) asked all public representatives from Telangana, including ministers, MLAs and MPs, to resign immediately to pile on the pressure on the Centre.Such a move would also force the national media to swing its attention to the Telangana issue, he said.Injustice has been done to the region, he said, despite the Nagarjuna Sagar project being built on its soil.He said development has been accelerated in recently carved-out small states such as Chattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand.