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Court seeks details on schemes for farmers

JAIPUR: The Rajasthan High Court has asked the State Government to submit details of the schemes undertaken by it for the welfare of farmers. The directive came from a Division Bench of the High Court comprising Chief Justice Narayan Roy and Justice R. M. Lodha in response to a public interest petition filed by Jitendra Singh Raghav on the plight of Rajasthan farmers.

Mr. Raghav in his PIL filed in 2006 had pleaded that the liabilities incurred every year by an average farmer in Rajasthan in farming was more than his (the farmer’s) annual income from the activity.

The Division Bench, not satisfied by the presentation of the 11th Five year Plan (2007-12) document on agriculture by the Additional Advocate-General of Rajasthan, in response to a previous Court notice in this regard, asked the Government to “put forth a comprehensive scheme of the State Government in the interest of the farmers, especially showing therein as to the steps taken for water harvesting management, insurance scheme or any other scheme beneficial to the farmers”.

Satyendra Raghav, advocate for the petitioner, citing figures of the National Sample Survey Organization (Survey, 2002-03), had pleaded that the average income of the Rajasthan farmer from farming was Rs.4,308 against an expenditure of Rs.7,668. The total annual income of the farmer was Rs.17,976 against his indebtedness of Rs.18,372.

“The condition of farmers in Rajasthan is worse than their counterparts in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh,” Mr. Raghav argued.

The PIL noted that while the condition of farmers was no better at the national level too, the worst sufferers were Rajasthan farmers whose income from farming stood much below the national average of Rs.11,628. The average indebtedness of the farmer too was higher than the national average of Rs.12,585, it pointed out.

The Court has given the authorities four weeks to respond.

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