EXPEDITE WELFARE SCHEMES TO PREVENT FARM SUICIDES SC

NEW DELHI (TIP): Questioning the Centre on lacunae in implementing various policies and programmes to prevent suicide by farmers, the Supreme Court today refused to close a PIL on the issue, even as it said the government was moving in the right direction.

“We are not going to close it. We are just keeping ourselves in the loop. You are moving in the right direction but suicides are going up,” a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India JS Khehar said during the hearing of a PIL by Citizens Resource and Action Initiative (CRANTI), an NGO.

“Giving compensation to the family of a farmer who kills himself is not enough. You are moving but still the suicides are increasing. There are policies but everything is on paper.

You must move towards implementation,” it said. The top court’s comments came after Attorney General KK Venugopal explained the steps taken to deal with the agrarian crisis and tried to impress upon the Bench to leave it to the government to implement the policies which, even the petitioner admitted, were good.

Giving details of its “multi-pronged attack” to tackle the problem, Venugopal said it was not for the court to supervise the government. But the Bench said: “There is a motive for us to hear this. We want you to soften the effect of loan on farmers.”

Hit by consecutive droughts, India has witnessed an agrarian crisis, driving many farmers to suicide owing to failed crops and indebtedness. Suicide by farmers increased by more than 40 per cent in 2015, crossing 8,000. Most of these were from Maharashtra (more than 3,000) and Telangana (more than 1,300). Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh too have seen suicides by farmers.

Source: The Tribune

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