West Bengal Government retracts RTI reply on farmer suicides

Earlier it had said 122 farmers had committed suicide in a single district in the State

In an unusual development, the West Bengal Government has retracted its response to a Right to Information (RTI) query where it had said 122 farmers had committed suicide in a single district in the State. 

The State Government has told the RTI applicant that the report, which was sent earlier to him, was “erroneous and not correct”.

The new response to the RTI query states that it is “clarified that in the year 2021, the figure of farmer suicide in Paschim Medinipur was NIL and also in 2022 till date, the figure of farmer suicides is NIL”.

Interestingly, the government posted the retraction days after several media houses reported on the RTI response which stated 122 farmer deaths in Paschim Medinipur in 2021 and 34 in the year 2022. While the letter posted by the Additional Superintendent of Police (Headquarters), Paschim Medinipur, retracting the earlier data bears the date of September 9, it was dispatched from Midnapore by registered post on September 13. The RTI petitioner Biswanath Goswami received it on September 16.

“Not only it is strange but it is also very surprising that the government provided false data in response to an RTI application. The data had police station-wise break-up of farmer suicides. I have been an RTI activist for more than 10 years and in thousands of replies I received from different agencies of the State and Central Government, I never come across a government stating that its response was erroneous,” Mr. Goswami said.

He added perhaps this could be the only instance in the country where the government had retracted its response. The activist also added that the earlier response reached him in two days whereas it took eight days for the retracted reply to reach him. 

“The retractions of the RTI are a clear attempt to cover up after the data manipulation of the government stand exposed. Providing false information under the RTI Act is a criminal offence and I demand that a thorough inquiry should be initiated,” he claimed.