The High Court of Karnataka on Friday directed the State government to provide data on cases of farmer suicide from 2017 to 2020 and the assistance and benefits offered to their families.
The court also directed the government to appoint a senior revenue officer to conduct an inquiry into cases of suicide by farmers in Shahpur taluk of Yadgir district since 2017 to ascertain the causes for death and the assistance given to the eligible family members of the deceased.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice S. Vishwajith Shetty issued the directions while hearing a PIL petition filed in 2019 by Akhanda Karnataka Raitha Sangha, Yadgir. The petitioner had complained that many farmers in Shahpur taluk were denied of benefits under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana for crop loss though they had paid the premium.
On the grievance of the petitioner that many farmers had not received crop insurance despite loss of crop, the Bench said the government would have to examine the matter either by itself or by referring it to the district-level grievance redressal committee, as per the crop insurance scheme.
The Bench directed the government to inform the court of the manner in which it would find out if farmers from whom crop insurance premium was collected were denied of the benefit of the scheme. Also, the Bench said the petitioner was free to forward to the district-level committee if there have been any specific instances of denial of crop insurance benefit.
Cases in State
It was contended on behalf of the petitioner that 40,346 farmers committed suicide in the State between 1997 and 2016. The petitioner pointed out that Karnataka was third in the country in farmer suicide, behind Gujarat and Maharashtra.
The petitioner’s counsel, Clifton D’Rozario, also told the court that 2,160 and 2,405 farmers ended their lives in 2017 and 2018, respectively, in Karnataka, and 98 farmers committed suicide in Shahpur taluk alone during 2016-19.
