-The Hindu Most of the earnings of the average farm household were spent in meeting consumption expenditures. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced a slew of measures in the Union Budget 2017 to boost the agriculture sector. Higher agricultural credit, higher allocation for irrigation projects, a crop insurance scheme and increased allocations for MGNREGA to dig farm ponds were among the measures announced on February 1. But will these help attain the goal...
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Amid election extravaganza, cycle of farmer suicides continue to rust India's grain bowl
-ANI Ludhiana (Punjab): "My father was under debt, no leader came for help," says a tear eyed Gursevak Singh, the son of a Punjab farmer who committed suicide. Gursevak's father, who was drenched in debt, committed suicide after his crops got damaged. "My father committed suicide, he was under debt and succumbing to the tension of repaying the loan he took the decision of ending his life. No leader helped us," he says. Ever...
More »Battleground Punjab: The story of the missing farmers -Subodh Varma
-The Economic Times A small village called Khanauri in Punjab's Sangrur district has become a macabre hotspot. People come here to peer down at the Bhakra Main Line canal hoping to catch sight of dead bodies that get held up on the sluice gates. They are not ghouls they are looking for kin or friends who have disappeared. The canal runs unhindered like an arrow for 159 km through Punjab's eastern...
More »Union Budget 2017-18: Urgent Need for an Improved Farm debt Waiver Scheme -Ishan Anand
-TheWire.in Despite all the talk of a big push to the agricultural sector, the last Union Budget turned out to be a missed opportunity to provide genuine relief to farmers. The government must rectify this. The finance minister will be presenting the Union Budget 2017-18 at a time when the agrarian economy is in deep crisis. The farmers of the country have been suffering from a longstanding neglect of the sector, which...
More »Suicide by farmers is a sensitive matter, says Supreme Court
-PTI NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Friday favoured a comprehensive national policy to protect farmers, many of whom have committed suicide due to rising debt and crop failures caused by natural calamities, terming it a "sensitive" matter of public interest and human rights. "It is a sensitive matter of larger public interest and human rights which covers the entire country," a bench comprising Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice N V...
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