Express News Service
CHANDIGARH: The farmers ‘suspended’ their protest after the Centre acceded to all their demands, including compensation for those who died during the year-long agitation. However, deciding on compensation is likely to be a tricky affair, as the Centre had just a few weeks ago told Parliament that it had no data on the death of farmers during the protest and hence, there was no question of giving compensation.
In its letter to the farmers, the Union government has conveyed that Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have in-principal consented to provide compensation to the family members of the farmers who died during the agitation. But it seems this will take time as the state governments have to work out the modalities.
A senior officer in the Haryana government said, “The farmers will have to give us a list of those who died during the agitation and then a consensus has to be reached on the number of farmers who died. After that, the government has to verify the claims of the farmers on how many of them died, their cause of death, age, how and where they died. It will also have to set certain norms and parameters. Their death certificates will also have to be checked.”
The Samyukta Kisan Morcha claims that a total of 714 farmers from various states died during the stir which had lasted more than a year. The Morcha had earlier asked the Centre to follow the Punjab model of granting compensation, which involves Rs 5 lakh and a job to the next of kin of each of the deceased.
At a meeting held between farmer leaders and Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar a few days ago, the state government had agreed to withdraw the cases against the farmers but the talks broke down as no consensus could be reached on compensation.
The farmers’ delegation had claimed that 114 farmers from the state had died while government officials reportedly had a list of only 45. There was no agreement on the compensation amount either.
