Reeling under debt, farmer kills himself

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, December 6

A debt-ridden farmer allegedly committed suicide after consuming pesticides at Kothe Chet Singhwala village in Goniana block on Thursday evening. The deceased has been identified as Manjit Singh (35), who had one acre and was struggling to repay a farm loan of approximately Rs6 lakh.

The deceased is survived by wife, son and father. His family members had admitted him to a hospital in Gidderbaha where doctors declared him brought dead.

A member of the BKU, Chinderpal Singh, who is also from the same village, said, “Manjit was a marginal farmer and shared two acres with his brother. He had taken a farm loan from different persons and organisations, including an arhtiya from the area. Following low agricultural produce after the harvesting season for the past few years, the burden of debt was increasing with every passing month due to which he was under tremendous pressure and went into depression lately.”

“Unable to repay the debt, Manjit had given his land on lease. Somehow, he managed to repay the loan taken from a bank. He, however, could not pay the loan he had taken from the arhtiya. Recently, he had sown wheat in his fields, but after some time he found that it did not grow properly. Thereafter, he could not cope with the crop loss and took the extreme step,” he added.

Residents of the village said the deceased’s father had some livestock and used to earn livelihood by selling milk in the area.

In another suicide case, arhtiya booked

In another case, the Dialpura police have booked an arhtiya after a farmer allegedly committed suicide by consuming pesticides in Salabatpura village in Rampura Phul block on Wednesday.

The arhtiya has been identified as Kuldeep Kumar of Bhadaur village in Barnala district. According to information, the victim had left a suicide note blaming him for the financial woes and taking the extreme step.

Rajinder Kumar, SHO, Dialpura police station, said, “After recovering the suicide note and on a complaint of the deceased’s son, we have registered a case under Section 306 of the IPC against the suspect.”