Taking serious cognisance of suicides by farmers in dire strains, the High Court of Uttarakhand has directed the Chief Secretary of the State to ensure formation of farmers commission within a period of three months.
At the same time the High Court has also directed the Central and State Governments to to go by the recommendation of the MA Swaminathan commission and declare support price which is three-times the average price of crops. This minimum support price for crops should also be publicised widely. The High Court also said that the government should make elaborate arrangements for food storage so that the farmers are not forced by situations to sell their produce at cheap rates.
In addition to this, a scheme should also be prepared for provision of family pension or compensation to the family of farmers who commit suicide due to their inability to repay farm loans. Further, a crop insurance scheme should also be prepared in the interests of farmers in case of damage caused to the crops by weather related factors. Regarding the repayment of agricultural loan, the high court directed the state government to formulate a scheme while also asking for regulations to be made for agricultural loan repayment or waiver in the case of families of farmers who had committed suicide. The government should also consider the possibility of either reducing of providing waiver from interest on farm loans which amount to Rs 50,000 or less. The court further directed the government to take the assistance of the technical department concerned for developing an application in which there is khasra-wise data on which type of crop can be cultivated better on which farm. The divison bench of justice Rajiv Sharma and justice Sharad Kumar Sharma took up the petition on Thursday.
According to the case details, resident of Kichha in Udham Singh Nagar, Ganesh Upadhyay had filed a public interest litigation in the high court stating that farmers in the state were burdened by excessive bank loans with some of them landing in conditions which made them desperate enough to commit suicide. Since September 2017, about seven farmers had committed suicide in the state due to this factor. The petitioner has further stated that the interest rates on bank loans for farmers are so high that the farmers end up borrowing money on high interst rates from moneylenders. On top of this, the government procures the produce from farmers but does not pay them on time, at times delaying the payment for up to 10 months. Citing a recent example, the petitioner said that the government had purchased rice worth Rs 75 crore from cultivators in Udham Singh Nagar but had not paid the farmers for the produce for about 10 months. Further, the farmers used to get Rs 1050 per quintal for poplar wood in 2007 whereas now they are being offered Rs 350 per quintal for the same even though there has been a three-fold increase in the market rate. This is not benefitting the farmers though the government is deriving direct benefit of this situation. Stating that the prime minister crop insurance scheme has not yet been implemented in the state, the petitioner further stressed that the scheme should be implemented in Uttarakhand.