Almost a year after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s much-hyped visit to Vidarbha, the country’s farmer suicide capital, the UPA Government’s plan to tackle the problem of rising rural indebtedness is yet to kick off. A high-level expert group under Indira Gandhi Institute of Development and Research (IGIDR) Director R Radhakrishna, personally appointed by the PM after his visit, is yet to submit its report.

While it was originally expected much before the Budget, in his foreword to the three-year report card of UPA released last month, the PM indicated he expected the report by the end of May. However, committee members told The Indian Express that the report would take another two-three weeks. “We met on Monday and have begun drafting the final recommendations,” a member said.

“The suicides are only a symptom of the crisis in the farm sector due to its prolonged neglect. Our recommendations call for institutional reforms as well as specific regional measures to tackle the different manifestations of indebtedness in different parts of the country,” the member added. Even as the group’s report is awaited, the Government has already got two other reports on the issue, but their recommendations remain largely on paper.

While an RBI-appointed technical committee on alleviating rural indebtedness submitted its report last November, the Planning Commission had set up a sub-group on ‘indebtedness of farmers’ within the working group on ‘outreach of institutional finance and cooperative reforms’ for the Eleventh Five Year Plan. Punjab State Planning Board Vice-chairman Sardar Singh Johl chaired the two groups.

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