Hopelessness, frustration, anger in protesting sugarcane growers

Tribune News Service

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj

Jalandhar, August 9

Frustration, anger, restlessness and hopelessness — these are the emotions that sugarcane growers are going through. Talk to them and one gets a clear idea that even though they are sitting on a dharna and raising slogans, but deep inside they are depressed. If someone is worried about paying debts, another is waiting for the payment so that they could renovate homes with the money.

Worried about loan

I have raised loan from several people… I had thought of returning it to them after getting my sugarcane dues, but it seems I would not be able to pay it anytime soon. — Karanjit Singh, Behram farmer

On the second day of their indefinite protest, Karanjit Singh (61), a farmer from Behram, expressed his disappointment with the authorities. “Pata nai ki gunah kitta hai asi. Sabda pet vi bharida hai, koi galat kamaayi vi nai, fer vi saade baare koi nai sochda (I don’t know what sin we farmers have committed. We fed others by growing crops, we don’t earn through wrongdoings, still, we suffer and nobody thinks for us),” this is how Singh showed his anger.

He said every time he got notice from the bank for the loan he had taken, he felt embarrassed. “I have raised loan from several people, now they ask for their money. I had thought of returning it to them after getting my sugarcane dues, but it seems I would not be able to pay it anytime soon,” he said.

There are several other farmers who have the same story to share. Davinder Singh, a farmer from Nawanshahr, said if someone didn’t get his/her salary for a month, how would he/she manage? Just think over. “I have not got my over Rs 7 lakh yet. Can you even imagine what important works of ours are getting delayed? Ki dassiye hun sabnu. Har kisi di koi na koi kahani hai (what should I tell anyone, here everyone has some or the other problem),” Singh said.

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