Farmers’ suicide in Punjab: DCs asked to expedite relief

Taking note of the pendency in forwarding cases for indebtedness relief to the kin of farmers and farm labourers who committed suicide, financial commissioner of revenue-cumchairperson of a state-level committee on indebtedness, Vinni Mahajan, on Monday issued directionstodeputycommissioners (DC) and asked them to clear the backlog and forward all cases for sanction by January 2018.

At present, the state government provides relief of ₹3 lakh to the kin of farmers who committed suicide.

Mahajan said the monthly review of approving sanctions for eligible cases revealed that DCs were sending debt-relief cases dating back to 2014 which was not in consonance with the directions of the government pertaining to rendering quick relief to the affected families.

The committee has now asked all DCs to verify cases properly.

Mahajan added that it was observed that many reports by chief agriculture officers were hushed up to the state-level committee via respective DCs without signatures of all members of the district committees.

She said that supporting documents were missing in some cases, while in others, there was a mismatch in data entry.

“Errors cause unnecessary delay and obstruct the relief to the affected families. Therefore, DCs have been directed to cross check all details,” she said.

In the meeting, 46 cases pertaining to providing relief to the kin of farmers and farm labourers affected by suicides were accorded sanctions.