Hyderabad: Seeking time to constitute a state-level farmers commission, the TS government on Thursday told the Hyderabad High Court that it has ordered collectors of all districts to inquire into farmer suicides due to harassment by private lenders. S. Sharath Kumar, special counsel for TS, submitted that according to the list submitted by the petitioners on the direction of the court, as many as 150 farmers had committed suicide from December 2015 to January 2016 in the state.
Mr Kumar made these submissions before a division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Dilip B. Bhosale and Justice P. Naveen dealing with the PILs challenging the inaction of the state governments in curbing the farmer suicides in TS and AP. The court had on February 15 asked the petitioners to collect the incidences of farmer suicides due harassment of private lenders. The lists given by the petitioners were sent to the district collectors concerned and they were directed to enquire into each case and report back to the government.
Explaining the steps taken to curb farmer suicides, including registration of cases against private lenders, Mr Kumar said that government was also taking steps to constitute a state-level farmers commission and urged the court to adjourn the hearing for three weeks.
