Around two years after the Punjab and Haryana High Court directed Punjab to come up with a suitable scheme for granting financial aid to the suicide affected farmers, the issue has once again come up on the judicial watch.
Finding the state doing only lip service on the matter of providing relief to the suicide affected farming families, the petitioner ‘Movement against State Repression’ has sought directions from the court for revival of the issue.
More than two years ago, the Punjab government had sought time from the High Court to formulate a suitable policy for providing financial relief to farming families, especially the suicide affected ones. Earlier the High Court, in February 2014, had directed the state to come up with a policy.
Appearing for the petitioner organization, Advocate R S Bains contended that despite a lapse of more than two years, the government had not taken any serious step towards framing of the said policy.
Petitioner counsel told the Court that the Punjab government in its plea had said that the government wanted to come up with a policy for provided financial assistance to the suicide affected farmer families on the lines of Andhra Pradesh. The Secretary, Department of Agriculture in his affidavit had said that the government was in touch with the States of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra and was willing to take cues from the policies made by both these states. The government had claimed that a request had already been sent to the Andhra Pradesh government, seeking details of the factors, kept in mind for framing the policy.
The state in its plea had said that the government was required to go through the policies prevailing in other states to frame an appropriate policy. It had also taken plea of consultation required with the finance and revenue authorities.
The counsel contended that the matter was required a judicial look again as the state had not made any serious attempts to come up with a suitable policy to come to the rescue of those families, who had lost their bread earners due to indebtedness. Issuing notice to State of Punjab, the Division Bench of Justice S S Saron and Justice lisa Gill adjourned the matter for next hearing on September 14.