By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net
Bhopal : Taking a serious cognizance of continued farmers suicides and failure of various packages announced for the crisis ridden Vidarbha farmers of Maharashtra state, the Nagpur Division Bench of Bombay High Court at Nagpur expressed great concern about the matter and came down heavily on the style and approach of the State Govt. in tackling the issue.
The High Court Bench has asked to furnish every details of the farmers package schemes and its implementation within three weeks, a Press release issued by Santosh Netam, Media Incharge of the Nagpur-based Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti, (VJAS), said.
While hearing the Public Interest Litigation, (PIL), filed by VJAS president Kishore Tiwari, today the Division Bench headed by Justice Dilip Sinha and Justice Bhushan Dharmadhikari expressed its great concern and displeasure on the entire crisis and observed that the farmers suicides are the matter of serious concern to the society and the Court but the State seems to be little serious about the issue.
The continued suicide deaths of the farmers in the cotton cultivating western Vidarbha region the toll has now crossed 1800 in last two years. Though the Writ Petition was filed by the petitioner way back in the month of February, 2006, the respondents State Officials have failed to obey the orders passed by High-Court from time to time. The plight of the farmers is continually deteriorating and farmers suicides are reported from every crisis-ridden district of Vidarbha, the release claimed.
The bouncing of cheque of Rs.10,000/- issued from the Prime Minister's Relief Fund to a farmer's widow is the classic example of how casually the Maharashtra State Government is functioning.
The petitioner has made Chief Secretary of Maharashtra State and other top officials including Principal Secretary,Home Affairs; Principal Secretary, Agriculture; Principal Secretary, Marketing; Secretary Co-operation, Commissioner of Agriculture at Pune, Director General of Police, Divisional Commissioners of Revenue Divisions at Amravati & Nagpur, Director General of Specially Formed Vasantrao Naik Sheti Swawlamban Mission having office at Amravati and National Commission for Farmers, appointed by the Union Ministry of Agriculture headed by Sharad Pawar at New Delhi as respondents.
The prayers made in the PIL in the interest of cotton cultivating farmers community at large are as under –
i) To take cognizance of the plight of poor families of farmers who were compelled to commit suicide due to wrongful policies of the State; ii) To order necessary probe / enquiry in the role of State Officers in promoting Bt. Cotton which resulted in the failure of crop; iii) To direct investigation through CBI, Vigilance Commission, CID or any other independent agency in the matter of sale of bogus and duplicate Bt. Cotton seeds by the companies and involvement of the officials of the State in inducing the poor farmers for cultivating the Bt. Cotton; iv) To order prosecution of the guilty officials for the offences punishable under Sections 306, 409, 420 & 120 (B) of Indian Penal Code, (IPC), and their over acts causing series of suicides of farmers; v) To direct the Maharashtra State Government to compensate the families of the farmers who were compelled to commit suicide due to the negligence of the State by providing Rs. 5,00,000/- each without any disparity or choose & pick policy; vi) To direct the State to take immediate measures for granting financial assistance to the Cotton growing farmers and to take further steps to protect the farmers from the coercive recovery at the hands of banks and private money lenders; vii) To direct the State to place Action Taken Report on the recommendations of Swaminathan Committee; viii) To direct the State to take appropriate action against the Bt. Cotton Seeds companies for compensating the poor farmers who died untimely & ix) Other reliefs which High Court may find suitable in the facts and circumstances & x) To issue writ, orders, directions to the respondents to frame long term policies and its timely implementation and review in the interest of farmers so that they can lead a graceful, respectful and dignified life as guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.
The petition will be taken up for further hearing after three weeks at the Nagpur Bench of the Mumbai High Court. Advocate Firdos Mirza & Advocate Vinod Tiwari appeared for the petitioner and State was represented by Asstt. Govt. Pleader Mrs. Bharati Dangre.
It may be pointed out here that it was an embarrassment for the Vilasarao Deshmukh-led Maharashtra Government when a cheque issued by the Yavatmal district collectorate was bounced owing to lack of adequate balance in the account last fortnight. Taking the serious note of the lapse on the part of the district administration, the chief minister even ordered a probe into the incident last week.
The Yavatmal district administration had issued a cheque of Rs. 10,000 in the name of one Vandana Shende, whose husband Anil had committed suicide in August last year. Vandana was shocked and surprised when the district Central Cooperative Bank dishnoured the cheque because of paucity of funds in the concerned account of district administration.
Several debt-ridden farmers have committed suicide in Vidarbha, forcing the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh government to announce a special economic package of Rs. 3750-crore last year and a sum of Rs. 1500-crore by the Maharashtra Government to bail out the crisis-ridden farmers.
It may be recalled here that on June 13, 2006, due to negligent and casual approach of the Maharashtra state and its bureaucrats to comply with the earlier orders passed by the High Court, by its order the Division Bench of the High Court had imposed cost of Rs. 1,000/- each to be recovered from the Chief Secretary and 12 other top I.A.S. officers of the ranks of Principal Secretary, Secretaries, Divisional Commissioners and Director General of Police to be paid within two weeks. In case of non-payment of the cost the reply-affidavit would not be considered, the order had said, and the High Court Bench would proceed to pass further orders on the prayer made by the PIL. petitioner Kishore Tiwari. However, after unconditional apology expressed by the Chief Secretary and other top bureaucrats, the High-Court had pardoned and the order of imposition of cost of Rs.1000/- each was modified after the prayer made by the Advocate General of Maharashtra State, who had to rush Nagpur for pleading before the Court in this Writ Petition, the release stated. ([email protected]