'States & UTs report Nil data on farmer suicides to NCRB' Reddy tells Rahul Gandhi in LS

G Kishan Reddy, Minister of State (MoS) for Home Affairs, replied to Congress MP Rahul Gandhi's question in Lok Sabha on farmer's suicide and said that National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has stated that many States and Union Territories have reported "Nil" data on suicides by farmers and cultivators.

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The Congress MP had asked for state-wise data on farmer suicides from the last four years, specifically their availability, the details thereof, and if not, the reasons therefor. Suicides by farmers and cultivators are published by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) as the "Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India."

Rahul Gandhi had additionally asked whether data on farmer suicides has been retrieved from the States/Union territories since 2016 by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) and if not, the reasons therefor and the reasons for not publishing the “Accidental Deaths and Suicides in the country” (ADSI) reports by the NCRB since 2015.

Kishan Reddy then replied through a written statement, saying, "As informed by NCRB, many States/Union Territories reported "Nil" data on suicides by Farmers/Cultivators and Agricultural labourers. After getting the data vetted from the States/Union Territories, NCRB has published ADSI Report till the year 2016."

"State-wise details of farmers suicides for the year 2015 and 2016 are given in annexure. Further, advisories have been issued by NCRB to all states/ union territories to furnish complete data sets in a timely manner for speedy publication of ADSI report," his statement further read.

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Rahul Gandhi asked another question about the manner in which the Government will formulate policies to address extreme cases of agrarian distress in the absence of essential data. To this, the Minister then replied, "Agriculture being a State subject, the State Governments undertake development of perspective plans to ensure effective implementation of the programmes/schemes. Government of India supplements the efforts of the State Governments through various Schemes/Programmes for the welfare of the farmers by increasing production and remunerative returns to the farmers.”

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(With Agency inputs)