The Punjab and Haryana high court has granted Punjab government two months’ time to come up with a permanent policy, preferably on the module of Andhra Pradesh, for giving financial assistance to the family of farmers who commit suicide.The directions came from the division bench comprising chief justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and justice Arun Palli.
The petitioner organisation, Movement Against State Repression, had raised the issue of framing a policy-envisaging payment to families of farmers who had committed suicide due to financial constraints on account of indebtedness after January 2000.
However, the state government assured the court that the second installment of compensation would be disbursed in two shifts - first one on or before March 31and the second one on or before July 31.
Appearing for the petitioner organisation, advocate RS Bains informed the court that some of the states have already framed compensation policy including Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh module could be followed. The case has now been adjourned for May 2 to submit the compliance report.
4,685 took extreme step
A state-level survey of suicides by farmers and farm labourers due to debt during 2000-08 was got conducted through the three state universities Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana; Punjabi University, Patiala; and Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar.
{{/usCountry}}A state-level survey of suicides by farmers and farm labourers due to debt during 2000-08 was got conducted through the three state universities Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana; Punjabi University, Patiala; and Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar.
{{/usCountry}}As per the survey reports, 4,685 persons, including 2,943 farmers and 1,742 farm labourers, had committed suicide due to debt during this period.
The court was also informed that Rs 28.86 crore were released to deputy commissioners during the 2012-13 financial year for disbursement of Rs 1 lakh per affected family on the basis of survey reports.
Additional sum of Rs 64.90 crore was sanctioned by the state government during the financial year 2013-14 to complete the payment of Rs 2 lakh per affected family, which the state government has now committed to disburse finally by July 31.