Expressing grave concern over the State Government’s failure to provide security cover to thousands of poor farmers, sharecroppers and agricultural workers, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has directed the State Chief Secretary to take steps so that all sections of the farming community are benefited in all aspects and file an Action Taken Report (ATR) at the earliest.
The NHRC in its notice to the Government has said thousands of small and marginal farmers in the State have been left out of the public distribution system. The food security scheme has failed to benefit them. Even MNREGA has failed to provide them food and employment. The commission said while sharecroppers are bearing the brunt of crop losses due to natural calamities, compensations are being paid to land owners for the crop losses.
The NHRC has sought information on what the State Government was doing when the situation is so serious, when genuine farmers are either dying untimely deaths due to malnutrition, hunger, disease, food shortage or committing suicide for their inability to repay loans.
Such queries by the NHRC have put the Government in a spot. The commission has issued the notice to the Government basing on a field study report filed by its special rapporteur citing several loopholes in implementation of farmers’ welfare schemes in the State. The field study report said farmers are suffering as a result of faulty policies adopted by the Government.
The report said while many landless farmers are outside the PDS net, a large number of bogus PDS cards are in circulation. The State Government’s one-rupee-a-kilo rice programme has failed to offer food security to all the poor farmers, the report added.
The report has also said the implementation of the MNREGA and BPl schemes in the State is far from transparent. For instance, it has pointed out, machines are being used for the MGNREGA works while it is mandatory under the scheme to provide jobs to the people in rural areas.
The NHRC had commissioned the field study by its special rapporteur after responding to a petition filed by Dayanidhi Sahu citing the miserable conditions of sharecroppers and agricultural workers in the State and the indifferent manner in which the PDS functions. NHRC’s move explains why State Panchayati Raj Department has now shot off letters to all 30 district Collectors and District Rural Development Agency Directors seeking details on the functioning of farmers’ welfare schemes.