Terming Punjab Government’s proposal for farm loan waiver as an “election stunt”, the Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) on Friday demanded farm loan at 4 per cent per year, complete loan waiver, and agriculture produce’s prices as per Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations.
The decisions were taken in BKU’s Punjab unit meeting under the chairmanship of its national president and former MP Bhupinder Singh Mann and State president Baldev Singh Mianpur.
Mianpur expressed deep concern on the increasing loan on farmers and the farmers’ suicides because of the raising debt, maintaining that the speed of suicides by the distressed farmers is very alarming.
“Farmer suicides are basically murders by the Government who forces the farmers to commit suicides due to financial stress as they are paid much below the cost of production,” he said adding that the situation of farmers is so bad that the farmers are forced to take loan for meeting their day-to-day expenses, education and also to sow the next crop.