Madras High Court says it reposes faith in government to solve farmers issues

Chennai: The Madras HC has expressed the hope that the action taken and to be taken by the Tamil Nadu government will obliterate the possibilities of tragedies like starvation death and suicide amongst farmers due to failure of paddy crop.

A division bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice T.S. Sivagnanam, was treating as closed a PIL by ‘Elephant’ G. Rajendran, which, among other things, sought a direction to the state government to pay Rs 20 lakh to the family of deceased farmers in 2003. The bench said the petitioner seeks to raise an important social issue of starvation deaths and suicides among farmers arising from crop failure in 2003 in the districts of Thanjavur, Nagapattinam and Tiruvarur.

The petitioner submitted there were various methodologies adopted by countries having prominently agriculture as source of revenue by providing requisite seeds and fertilisers at subsidised rates to agriculturists. Scientific methods were being used to reduce the impact of natural changes. The state may bestow urgent consideration on these aspects with the assistance of experts to advise a proper scheme for farmers.

“We are in complete agreement with what the petitioner pleads, but the matter being one in the administrative domain, we expect the state government to take necessary steps in this direction. It is open to the petitioner to make his suggestions to the state government, which can be examined with the assistance of experts to see how best the problems of farmers can be reduced,” the court said.