Andhra Pradesh Farmers Suicide Ex-Gratia Scheme

What is the Andhra Pradesh Farmers Suicide Ex-Gratia Scheme?

Andhra Pradesh Farmers Suicide Ex-Gratia Scheme is a relief measure run by the Department of Agriculture, Government of Andhra Pradesh, together with the Revenue Department, that pays Rs 7,00,000 to the next of kin of a farmer who dies by suicide because of agrarian distress. It is not an insurance policy and it is not a loan. It is a one-time grant meant to keep a bereaved farm household solvent in the months after the death: to clear the private debt that often caused the death in the first place, and to keep children in school.

The scheme is administered through the same district machinery that handles the state's other farmer relief payments, and its case status is published under the farmer insurance and ex-gratia portal at ysrbima.ap.gov.in. Andhra Pradesh has run a farmer suicide ex-gratia in one form or another for many years; the present entitlement of Rs 7,00,000 is the figure listed in the state's current scheme documentation.

What makes this scheme different from most welfare schemes

• There is no application form. Families never queue at a counter.
• The Village Revenue Officer is required to open the file once a death is reported in the village.
• Two committees; one at mandal level, one at division level; verify the case, so a single official cannot block or wave through a claim.
• Payment reaches the nominee by Direct Benefit Transfer, not by cheque.

Who is eligible for the farmers suicide ex-gratia in Andhra Pradesh?

The family qualifies if:

• The deceased was a permanent resident of Andhra Pradesh.
• The deceased was a farmer, a tenant farmer, or a person whose livelihood depended on agriculture: including agricultural labourers and cultivators farming under oral tenancy.
• The cause of death was suicide, established by the post-mortem report, the death panchanama and the FIR.
• The committees accept that the suicide was linked to agrarian distress.

The scheme's own list of recognised distress causes is unusually wide, and it is worth quoting because families often assume their case does not fit: failure of borewells, high cost of cultivation, non-remunerative prices, oral tenancy, ineligibility to avail bank loans, private lending at high interest rates, adverse seasonal conditions, heavy expenditure on children's education, ill health, marriage expenses, and crop loss.

A family is not eligible / cannot apply where:

• The deceased had no connection with agriculture as an owner, tenant or labourer.
• The death was not a suicide: natural death, accident and murder are handled under other heads of relief, not this one.
• The committees find, on the record, that the death had no link to agrarian distress.
• The claimant is not the next of kin of the deceased. The entitlement runs to the immediate family, normally the spouse and dependent children.

Land ownership is deliberately not a filter here. A landless cultivator's family is as eligible as a pattadar's, which is the single most misunderstood point about the scheme.

What documents does the Village Revenue Officer collect?

Families should keep at least two photocopy sets of the police documents. The FIR and post-mortem copies travel with the file through three offices, and a missing copy is the commonest cause of delay.

How to apply for the Andhra Pradesh farmers suicide ex-gratia

Andhra Pradesh states plainly that there is no need to apply anywhere, but the family still has to trigger the process. These are the real steps.

1. Report the death to the Village Revenue Officer (VRO) of your village, or to the Village/Ward Secretariat, as soon as the funeral formalities are over. Give the name, Aadhaar number and survey number or tenancy details of the deceased. You can also call 1902 to record the report.
2. Ensure the police formalities are complete, an unnatural-death FIR, a death panchanama and a post-mortem at a government hospital. Collect certified copies of all three; without a post-mortem report the file usually stalls.
3. Obtain the death certificate from the gram panchayat or municipal office and hand a copy to the VRO along with Aadhaar, the ration card and the land or tenancy record.
4. Give the nominee's bank details — an account in the spouse's or next of kin's own name, Aadhaar-seeded, so the Direct Benefit Transfer does not bounce.
5. Attend the mandal-level enquiry. The Mandal Level Committee, convened by the tahsildar, visits or summons the family, records the distress cause and sends its recommendation upward.
6. Wait for the Divisional Level Committee, headed by the Revenue Divisional Officer, to approve the case. Sanction follows, and Rs 7,00,000 is credited to the nominee's account.

How do I check the status of a farmer ex-gratia claim?

1. Ask the VRO or the Village/Ward Secretariat for the file number given to the case when it was opened.
2. Check the ex-gratia status page on ysrbima.ap.gov.in, which publishes farmer relief and ex-gratia case status for the state.
3. Follow up with the tahsildar's office for the Mandal Level Committee stage, and with the Revenue Divisional Officer for the divisional stage.
4. Call 1902 if the file has not moved for several weeks.

Realistically, a clean file with all four police and civil documents in place moves through both committees in a matter of weeks; contested cases, where the distress link is disputed, take longer because the committee has to record evidence from neighbours and creditors.

Why do ex-gratia claims get rejected, and what can be done?

• No post-mortem or no FIR. Nothing else in the file can substitute for these. If the police did not register an unnatural-death case, approach the Sub-Divisional Police Officer in writing.
• The committee does not accept the distress link. This is the commonest substantive rejection. Bring evidence of the debt: private lenders' promissory notes, bank recall notices, borewell drilling bills, crop loss records, to the enquiry, and appeal to the Divisional Level Committee.
• The deceased is not established as a cultivator. For tenants, ask neighbouring pattadars and the VRO to record the oral tenancy. A Crop Cultivator Rights Card issued in an earlier season is strong evidence.
• DBT failure. A nominee account that is not Aadhaar-seeded, or one that is dormant, will reject the credit. Get the account seeded at the bank branch and inform the tahsildar's office.
• Rival claims within the family. Where more than one person claims to be the next of kin, the committee holds the payment until the family produces a legal heir certificate.

Where do I go with a grievance?

• Helpline 1902, the Andhra Pradesh government's citizen helpline, which logs the complaint against your file.
• Tahsildar, mandal office, convener of the Mandal Level Committee.
• Revenue Divisional Officer, head of the Divisional Level Committee.
• District Collector's grievance day (Spandana), the escalation point inside the district when neither committee has acted.
• Assistant Director / Joint Director of Agriculture at the district office for questions about the agrarian distress finding.

No middleman can get an ex-gratia sanctioned, and no official is entitled to a fee for processing the file. Every step, from the FIR copy to the DBT credit, is free.

If you or someone you know is in distress, the national mental health helpline Tele-MANAS on 14416 is available in Telugu around the clock.