Tamil Nadu govt denies farmers in state died due to farm distress in state
Apex court was hearing case filed by Tamil Nadu Centre for Public Interest Litigation, seeking court's intervention in providing relief to farmers affected by drought in the state
New Delhi: The Tamil Nadu government on Thursday denied that farmers had died due to agricultural distress in the state.
“The state has sanctioned sum of 3 lakhs on humanitarian grounds for farmers who died due to aging, heart attack, prolonged illnesses and various other reasons," the state said in an affidavit.
The court was hearing a case filed by the Tamil Nadu Centre for Public Interest Litigation, seeking the court’s intervention in providing relief to farmers affected by drought in the state.
In an earlier hearing, an apex court bench headed by justice Dipak Misra had criticized the Tamil Nadu government for not stepping in to provide relief to farmers in the state.
The state’s response comes just days after farmers from Tamil Nadu temporarily called off their 40-day protest in the national capital.
Tamil Nadu chief minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, who was in Delhi for the Niti Aayog meeting had assured the agitating farmers that their demands would be met.
However, P. Ayyakanuu who had been leading the protests had said, “if the promises are not met, we would resume the protest in Delhi in a bigger way on 25 May."
Earlier this month, the apex court while hearing a PIL, had criticized the state government for remaining silent over the farmer distress. Also, The Madras high court directed the Tamil Nadu government to waive agricultural loans taken by all farmers, irrespective of their land holding, and to ensure that no penal action or loan recovery is initiated against them.
https://www.livemint.com/Politics/Gm0xyN7gtdAThiXDXO02pI/Waive-off-loans-of-all-farmers-Madras-HC-tells-Tamil-Nadu-g.html
While Tamil Nadu, which had declared all 32 districts as drought-affected, urged the Centre to sanction a relief amount of Rs39,565 crore. The Centre had released Rs1,712.10 crore to the state from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) to mitigate the farm crisis.
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