WITH the Maharashtra government announcing on Monday that families of farmers who committed suicide would get Rs 1 lakh compensation without any inquiry, the move will benefit over 500 families of farmers who were denied the financial assistance in the last one-and-a-half-year tenure of the Devendra Fadnavis government. “The government has decided to do away with the inquiry undertaken before payment of compensation to families of farmers who committed suicide,” Agriculture Minister Eknath Khadse said in the Legislative Assembly on Monday. [related-post] The process of paying compensation to farmers involved conducting a probe to verify whether a farmer committed suicide due to drought or debt. “There are three criteria for deciding the compensation. It includes whether the farmer ended life due to loan taken from a nationalised or a cooperative bank, due to crop failure, or if they had been chased by banks,” said Beed District Collector Naval Kishore Ram. District officials in Marathwada said the government’s latest move would ensure quick relief to aggrieved families. “There was lot of delay in providing assistance to bereaved families. We had to take the help of the police and doctors in deciding whether the death was a suicide. The hospital report on suicides itself used to get delayed,” said Osmanabad District Collector Prashant Narnaware. In the House, the revenue minister also said labs would be asked to conduct viscera tests in cases of farmer suicides on priority and submit the report within a month. While Khadse announced that Rs 1-lakh compensation would be made available to the families of deceased farmers without an inquiry, he did not specify whether it would be made available with restrospective effect or from the date of announcement of the decision. Secretary, Relief and Rehabilitation, Govind Raj said the decision was announced on the floor of the House, but the final announcement would be made by the state government. “A government resolution will soon be issued in this regard. It will make clear whether the decision would be applicable to past suicides too,” he said. However, Kishore Tiwari, who heads the state government-appointed Vasantrao Naik Sheti Swavlamban Mission, said the decision would be made applicable to all suicides since Devendra Fadnavis government took charge. “The government feels that everything should be done to alleviate the sufferings of families of farmers,” he said, adding, “The decision has been taken as there was a lot of confusion regarding whether the farmer has ended life due to farm distress or other reasons. There was delay and denial of assistance to the families who had already been hit hard by drought and death.” Tiwari said he had visited 350 families of farmers who had committed suicide. “Their plight was seen to be believed. We impressed upon the government to do every thing possible to ease their sufferings,” he said. Officials in Marathwada said as many as 299 families were denied the financial assistance in 2015 after the inquiry. This year, already 53 families have been denied the compensation. Officials said the latest decision would benefit 500-1,000 farmer families across Maharashtra.
