HYDERABAD: Telangana High Court on Monday faulted both union and Telangana governments for abandoning farmers of the state and not providing them any crop insurance.
A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice (ACJ) M.S. Ramachandra Rao and Justice T. Vinod Kumar wondered why both governments have paid no heed to resolve grievances of Telangana farmers, whose crops had been damaged in incessant rains during October 2020. No crop insurance had been made available even to farmers of northern Telangana, 50 per cent of whose crops had got washed away.
The ACJ asked why Telangana state is not concerned about providing crop insurance and sought a reply from the advocate general by September 8.
The bench expressed surprise with the counter filed by union agricultural ministry saying it has nothing to do with losses faced by farmers due to heavy rains or storms; that it only considers situations only when a drought occurs.
The justices questioned assistant solicitor general Namavarapu Rajeshwar Rao whether the agriculture department is not responsible for dealing with grievances of farmers. It asked why the home ministry has not filed any affidavit since one year explaining its role. The bench sought a reply in this regard within two days.
Expressing its deep dissatisfaction over delay in releasing either compensation or ex-gratia, the ACJ said “The PIL was filed in November 2020... We are now almost in October 2021... Since one year, the union home ministry has not filed its counter affidavit, the union agriculture ministry has filed a half-baked counter and state government has not yet taken a decision in this regard. Both the union and state governments have washed their hands off and abandoned Telangana farmers.”
