Aid to farmers’ families: Karnataka High Court tells chief secretary to file affidavit

The High Court of Karnataka on Tuesday expressed shock over the “insensitive” affidavit filed by the commissioner for agriculture on the scheme of assistance to the families of the farmers who ended lives by suicide.

The court directed the chief secretary to government to take a clear stand whether the families of the farmers who have taken loan from private money lenders can be excluded from government assistance.

In the previous hearings, a division bench headed by Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka had directed the state government to submit a detailed affidavit on the alarming number of suicides reported from Shahpur taluk in Yadgir district. The bench perused the report submitted by the Commissioner for Agriculture.

The report said that between 2016 and 2020-21 a total 125 farmers ended lives by suicide in Shahpur taluk. Elaborating the scheme of assistance to the families of such farmers, including cash compensation of Rs five lakh, the report said only 105 farmers were eligible.

The report said in terms of the government order issued in 2015, financial assistance can be given only to those who have taken loans from banks/credit co-operative societies. The state government has no control and there is no regulation preventing farmers from approaching private money lenders.

The bench observed that the state has created two artificial classes of farmers. “Therefore, prima facie it is difficult to accept that the classification made by the state will stand the test of Article 14 of the Constitution of India,” the court said. The bench also observed that it should concern the state that the cause for suicide was that the farmers were unable to repay the borrowed amounts.

The bench directed the chief secretary to file an affidavit within three weeks after taking a look at the report filed by the Commissioner for Agriculture.

“We are sure that the chief secretary while filing the affidavit will look at the seriousness of the situation. Only in one taluk there are 125 cases of farmers committing suicide within a span of five years. We are sure that the chief secretary will also consider why some of the farmers are forced to go to individual money lenders for obtaining loans,” the bench said.

The PIL is filed by Akhanda Karnataka Raitha Sangha. Apart from the alarming number of suicides in Shahpur taluk and other districts, the petition highlights the non-payment of crop insurance in the state. The petition said more than 20,000 farmers have ended their lives in the state in the past two decades, third highest after Maharashtra and Gujarat.