PIL filed in SC to take check suicide by debt-ridden farmers

New Delhi, Aug 2 (UNI) An advocate has filed a PIL in the Supreme Court seeking directions to the Centre and the worst affected states namely Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala to take adequate preventive measures to check the increasing incidence of farmers committing suicide.

The petitioner, Sanjeev Bhatnagar, has also prayed to the court to direct the respondents to constitute an experts committee to investigate the basic reasons and lapses in the implementation of the agricultural policy meant for the welfare of the farmers in the country and also to plug the loopholes in the policy.

According to the petitioner, in the last five years 5910 farmers ended their life in Karnataka, 1835 in Andhra Pradesh, 981 in Maharashta and 201 in Kerala.

The main reason behind the extreme step is the farmers inability to repay the loan they take from private moneylenders and financial institutions. Sometimes the nature is also hostile and unkind and natural calamities like flood and drought add to their woes.

According to the petitioner, the Union Government and the state are under constitutional obligation to ensure the survival of a farmer who feeds the entire nation. Seventy per cent of the population depend on agriculture.

The planning of the Government is also lacking in concern for the farmers, as the farmers are virtually left at the mercy of private moneylenders coupled with vagaries of nature.

The price-fixation policy of the Government also fails to do justice while fixing procurement prices for the agricutural produce.

The petitioner has pleaded that the Government take immediate, urgent and effective steps to save the farmers from the debt-trap as most of them are virtually illiterate and poor.

The petitioner has also sought directions to the respondent to review the existing agricultural policy and re-draft the same so that their is no recurrence of any suicide by the farmers in the future.

UNI AKS SC SI AT HS1814