Farmers’ suicide: HC tells govt to decide on aid to kin

The High Court on Wednesday directed the state government to take a policy decision to extend the benefits to the families of farmers who have taken loans from private money lenders and ended lives by suicide.

The bench directed the state government to report compliance within eight weeks.

A division bench, headed by Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka, gave this direction after going through the response submitted by Chief Secretary P Ravi Kumar.

The bench noted that the chief secretary has not complied with what was recorded in the
last order.

The court had noted that prima facie, excluding the farmers who have taken loans from money lenders from the ambit of compensation scheme violates Article 14 of the Constitution of India.

The chief secretary has been asked to place the observations made by the court before the appropriate authority in the government which is empowered to take a policy decision.

The PIL is filed by Akhanda Karnataka Raitha Sangha. The petitioner claimed that more than 20,000 farmers ended their lives by suicide in Karnataka in the past two decades.

The next hearing is fixed for June 11.