FARMER SUICIDES: GOVT GETS 3 WEEKS TO LIST SOLUTIONS

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court, on Wednesday, gave three weeks to the Punjab government to list measures to prevent suicides by farmers in the state. The direction came from the high court bench of chief justice Krishna Murari and justice Arun Palli on a batch of petitions seeking measures to stop farmers from taking the extreme step.

The bench observed that compensating a victim’s family for the loss of life of a farmer could be an interim measures, but not the solution.

“By doing so, aren’t you encouraging farmers to commit suicides,” the HC bench asked.

In April 2018, the government had made a statement in court that a team of officials is visiting Andhra Pradesh to study the steps taken to deal with this crisis. However, the court said that in the affidavit filed on Wednesday the government suggested that it had studied a scheme launched by Andhra Pradesh.

The issues of farmers of Andhra Pradesh could be different from those in Punjab, the court remarked.

The court added that no data had been prepared by government since 2014 about causes.

“Things have changed in three years, it needed fresh consideration,” the court observed, rejecting the government affidavit and seeking a fresh one within three weeks.