Farm suicide victims’ kin demand loan waiver, jobs

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, November 30

A meeting of the Farmer and Labourer Suicide Victim Families’ Committee, Punjab, was held here on Saturday. The committee elected its district office-bearers and demanded complete loan waiver for suicide victim families. The meeting was headed by committee state president Kiranjit Kaur Jhunir.

Kiranjit Kaur said Manpreet Kaur of Khemuana village has been appointed as district president along with Ranjit Kaur, Manjit Kaur, Harjit Singh and Rajwinder Kaur as its working members.

She said the committee would submit a memorandum of demands to the Bathinda Deputy Commissioner on Monday. She stated that the family members of farmers and labourers, who committed suicide due to debt, were going through tough times. The government had allocated Rs 3,000 crore in the 2019-20 budget as debt waiver for farmers. However, instead banks and other financial institutes are creating fear among farmers by sending them recovery notices, she added.

She said on July 23, 2015, the state government had notified a policy for the suicide victim families. Under which, till the rehabilitation of the victim family or at least for a year, the Agricultural Department would take care of the affected family fields. But in reality, no Agricultural Department employee had ever visited the victim family house.

The families also alleged that the Congress in their election manifesto had announced Rs 5 lakh relief to the victim families, besides the benefits of all government welfare schemes to the victim families.

The families have demanded complete waiver of agriculture loan, besides notices issued by banks should be stopped. Some families have no money to survive or send their children for study to schools or colleges. The family members should be given job under ghar ghar rozgar scheme and the victim families who have been left out should be included in the Atta-Dal schemeof Punjab government, Kiranjit Kaur added.

She demanded that homeless victim families should be given five marla plot under the Pradhan Mantra Awas Yojana with a subsidy of Rs 1.20 lakh for constructing a house.