Why no national policy to help calamity-hit farmers, asks Supreme Court

Why no national policy to help calamity-hit farmers, asks Supreme Court

 

NEW DELHI: Having dealt with the issue of farmers’ suicide raised in many PILs earlier, the Supreme Court on Friday found it strange that there was no national policy to compensate tillers for crop failure or indebtedness, two major reasons for them to take their lives.

A bench of Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice N V Ramana was dealing with a three-year-old appeal filed by an NGO led by Mallika Sarabhai questioning the rationale behind Gujarat high court’s decision not to entertain its PIL seeking relief for farmers, nearly 600 of whom had committed suicide between 2004-2012.
The CJI said, “It is rather strange that there have been several incidents of farmers’ suicide yet there is no national policy to protect them from crop failure leading to their indebtedness. There must be a policy to compensate farmers for crop failure. This is a national issue and of larger public interest.” Petitioner’s counsel Colin Gonsalves and Gujarat counsel Pritesh Kapur agreed with the bench.

The bench suo motu decided to convert the appeal into a PIL and issued notices to the Centre, states and Union Territories. It asked them to file their responses within four weeks. It said participation of all governments in formulating a national framework for payment of compensation to farmers distressed by natural calamities was imperative.

The Centre informed the court that the NDA government had launched a comprehensive crop insurance scheme under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), which assured a certain sum of money for crop failure because of localised incidents and post-harvest losses.

The CJI-headed bench said, “If there is a natural calamity, there should be a policy to give compensation to farmers.” In February last year, the SC had refused to entertain a petition seeking a direction to the government to fix minimum support price (MSP) of agricultural products. A bench headed by then CJI T S Thakur had said, “We are not supposed to go into policy matters. It is for the government to see and take decision. These are matters which are between people and the government… It is a problem of governance and the government has to take measures. We are not sitting in judgment over policies.”
The petition before the bench of Justices Khehar and Ramana was an appeal filed by NGO ‘Citizens Resource and Action Initiative’ against the Gujarat HC’s July 10, 2013 decision declining to entertain its writ petition seeking relief for farmers.

The NGO had sought Rs 5 lakh compensation each to families of farmers who committed suicide because of crop failure and financial aid at the rate of Rs 30,000 per hectare to farmers who suffered crop failure.

 

 

 

 

Source: ECONOMIC TIMES