More than 400 farmers have committed suicide in the five months since the state came into being on June 2 this year.

In new state Telangana, where more than 400 debt-ridden farmers have committed suicide since June, chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has announced that salaries of all lawmakers will be doubled.The legislators - members of the state assembly and legislative council - at present draw a salary of Rs 95,000 a month each. The Chief Minister's office said yesterday that this amount is not commensurate with "rising expenses."The new salary will be two lakh rupees each.There are 119 MLAs, plus a nominated member, and 40 MLCs in Telangana at present, 36 of whom are of minister rank and have a different pay scale. At Rs two lakh a month for the remaining 124, the lawmakers' salaries would cost the state Rs 2.5 crore per month or Rs 150 crore in five years - an additional burden of Rs 75 crore.The Telangana Rashtra Samithi or TRS government had delinked the announcement with the state budget earlier this month, as the opposition attacked it over the death of farmers in the drought-hit state that came into being on June 2 this year, after Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated.TDP MLAs who had been demanding a discussion on farmers issues had been suspended for a week from the House. Today, they brought to Indira Park, less than 2 km from the assembly, widows and family of some 90 farmers who have died in the chief minister's district of Medak.

The TDP's attempt to politically embarrass the chief minister was linked to its legislators being suspended from the assembly for a week, and demanding that the government pay attention to the plight of farmers, TDP leaders said.Politicians across parties have earlier defended the salary hike. But the TDP legislator from Mahbubnagar S Rajender Reddy said today, "People will laugh at us if we double our salary at this time when farmers are killing themselves."