Madras High Court today issued notices to Secretaries to Government of India, Ministry of Water Resources and Finance and Secretaries of state Agriculture Department, Ministry of Finance, Revenue and PWD on a PIL seeking to fix proper and fair value for agricultural products and to increase facilities and services to farmers.
The notices are returnable by October 21.
The petitioner M Appavu, a former MLA, in his PIL said 58 per cent of the total employable population in the country were agriculturalists and wanted to increase productivity of cultivation.
He said that normal life of a farmer in our country has become miserable and depressed and they were "forced to attempt suicide due to the burden of agricultural loan and poverty with loss and damages in cultivation".
The petitioner said the government has to consider the loss caused to them and take necessary action to safeguard the interest of farmers. Since the Government was not encouraging cultivation in our country, in the year 2012 the Gross Domestic Product has decreased to 15 per cent in cultivation, 27 per cent in production through Industries and 58 per cent in service Sector.
Appavu said that there was a steep fall in cultivation in the recent years due to non-support by governments to the agricultural sector.
While comparing to the allotment to this sector in 1950 which was 14.5 per cent, in the year 2012-13 it was only 6 per cent, he submitted in his petition.
