In a major relief to Telangana farmers, the Telangana High Court has directed the State Government to compensate the farmers for the crop losses they suffered due to heavy rains and floods last year.

Acting on public interest litigation filed by Rythu Swarajya Vedika leaders, a High Court Bench headed by the Acting Chief Justice, M S Ramachandra Rao, found fault with the State Government for its failure to compensate the farmers from the Disaster Relief Fund.

It was also critical for the Government’s failure to implement any crop insurance scheme in the State.

“Though it was widely reported that the farmers suffered damages to their crop in about 25 lakh acres due to heavy rains and floods in September and October, 2020. The State Government did not take any steps to provide relief to the affected farmers,” the RSV said.

While directing the State Government to enumerate and assess the damages to crop in three months, the bench asked the Government to pay them the relief under National Disaster Management Act 2005 to all the beneficiaries, including tenant farmers.

The court also directed the State to provide additional and appropriate relief to the small and marginal farmers, who suffered heavily for lack of crop insurance coverage in four months.

 “Lakhs of farmers in the State are suffering crop loss every year due to natural calamities, landing them in huge debts. The State Government had admitted that they suffered a loss of about  ₹7,219.5 crore in crop damages,” Vissa Kirankumar, one of the petitioners, said.

Though the government didn’t provide the information under the RTI, it was forced to do make it public due to the Court orders, Ravi Kannekanti, another petitioner, said.

While welcoming the court order, S Ashalatha, another petitioner, said that the Government should have a mechanism for enrolling the actual cultivators in the light of the court order.

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