Farmer suicides: SC tells TN govt to adopt approach to prevent, not compensate

The court was dealing with a PIL filed by farmers from Tamil Nadu

The Supreme Court on Friday reminded the Tamil Nadu government that its approach on farmer suicides must be preventive, not compensatory. The comments came a day after the court advised the Centre to implement policies, that were still mostly on paper, if it wanted to stop farmer suicides, than distributing compensation later.

“Your job is to prevent farmer suicides and not go around distributing compensation after the suicides,” a bench of Justices Dipak Misra and A M Khanwilkar told Additional Solicitor-General P Narasimha, appearing for the state government. The court was dealing with a PIL filed by farmers from the state.

According to a state government affidavit filed in court, 30 farmers committed suicide in 2016-17. It added that the kin of 82 farmers, including the 30 who committed suicide, were given Rs 3 lakh as ex-gratia from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.