SC Asks Centre to Apprise NGO of Steps Taken to Deal with Farmers' Plight

New Delhi, Nov 19 (PTI) The Supreme Court Monday asked the Centre to provide to an NGO the information about the steps taken to ameliorate the plight of farmers to effectively deal with rural indebtedness and other problems which lead them to commit suicide.

The apex court, on July 6, 2017, had granted six months to the Centre for showing positive results of its several welfare schemes like 'Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana' (PMFBY), crop loans and Kisan Credit Card (KCC) which were launched to deal with the difficulties faced by farmers across the country.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph asked Attorney General K K Venugopal to hand over the copy of Centre's affidavit and other documents to senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, representing NGO Citizens Resource and Action Initiative (CRANTI), which has filed the PIL on farmers' suicides.

Earlier, the Centre had said it was dealing with the issue with all seriousness and that sufficient time of one year be given for "the process of implementation so that the results emerge". The court had granted six months' time to Centre on July 6, 2017.

The bench had said that "paying compensation is not the solution at all to deal with farmers' suicides" as the key reason for these was indebtedness and their inability to pay back the loans.

It, however, had said the issue of farmers' suicide cannot be dealt with overnight and the attorney general was justified in seeking time for effective results of various schemes.

The Centre had referred to various schemes and said multi-pronged attempts were being made to ameliorate their plight and out of around 12 crore farmers, 5.34 crore farmers have already been covered under various welfare schemes, including the Fasal Bima Yojana.

It had said almost 30 per cent farm land has also been covered under the crop insurance scheme and the figure would substantially rise by the end of 2018.

Gonsalves, representing the NGO, had contended that over 3,000 farmers have committed suicide and the government should address all the real issues and implement a proper policy.

He had also referred to the suicides committed by farmers in Madhya Pradesh and said they were forced to sell onions Rs one per kg and the minimum support price was fixed by the state government only after such incidents.

The court had then granted time to the Centre and fixed the PIL filed by the NGO for hearing after six months.

The bench had asked the Centre to consider the suggestions of Gonsalves in formulating measures to deal with the issue of farmer suicides.

The bench was hearing the PIL raising the issue of farmer suicides in Gujarat, which was later expanded pan-India by the Supreme Court.

The NGO, in its submissions, had sought directions on issues, including implementation of recommendations of the Ramesh Chand Committee Report, which suggested enhancement of MSP by computing the time spent by a farmer in agricultural activities on the basis of skilled wage rate and calculating land rent as the prevailing rent or the actual reported, without any ceiling.

On the issue of crop insurance, the NGO sought improvement and implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna to ensure crop insurance of nine crore agricultural households as against 20 per cent of the farmers covered as on date.

It has also sought immediate steps to reduce rural indebtedness which stood at 45.9 per cent in 2013 as well as the intensification of debt burden which rose from 1.61 in 1992 to 2.46 in 2013 by sharply reducing the outstanding debt from money lenders which stood at 29.6 per cent in 2013.

Prior to this, the apex court had said farmers committing suicide in the country was a serious issue and the Centre should deal with the real issues which forced them to take the extreme step.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)