lambasting over the SAD-BJP Government in Punjab, Congress legislative Party (ClP) leader Sunil Jakhar on Thursday said that the farmers have been committing suicide in the state and the Chief Minister has only been writing letters to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi instead of providing them relief.
Jakhar, reacting to the suicide committed by Fatehgarh Sahib-based farmer Surjit Singh a day before, expressed anguish over the way the state government has been dealing with the farmers’ issues.
He also warned the state government to launch a protest against the non-functional of irrigation canals in the state, due to which the farmers have been facing huge problems in the irrigation process during the peak summers.
“The state government had promised the farmers in the state to provide free electricity and water for the irrigation purposes but the government now has failed to fulfill their promises,” said Jakhar.
The leader of Opposition in Punjab Vidhan Sabha said that the state’s farmers have already been under pressure due to increasing debt over them, while on the other side, instead of providing relief or any kind of compensation to them, the state government has been exploiting the farmers.
“Due to the untimely rain in September last year and this year in February, March and April, farmers have been facing loss of around Rs 2,000 crore, whereas crops on 7.5 lakh acre land have suffered a loss. All other states like Haryana, Delhi have given the compensation,” he said.
Jakhar pointed that Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had visited various grain markets of the state in April and had listened to the farmers’ problems. “But, the ruling SAD-BJP government had termed it as ‘show-off politics of Rahul Gandhi’. Increasing cases of farmers’ suicide have exposed the real picture of the farmers’ conditions in Punjab,” he said.
“Where the leaders from the ruling party had to raise the issues of farmers’ conditions in the Parliament, their SAD MPs or the Union Ministers are on praising trip of the Central Government,” he said.
DEMANDS EMERGENCY ASSEMBlY SESSION TO DISCUSS FARMERS’ SUICIDES
Meanwhile, the Congress party has also urged the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to convene an emergency session of the Vidhan Sabha to discuss burning issue of farmers’ suicides and to introduce regulation of Rural Credit System.
Besides, the party demanded to discuss during emergency session the issue of reducing interest rates of state-owned banks and setting up of district-wise Debt Determination and Settlement Boards.
“Octogenarian and seasoned leader like Badal should hang his head in shame that his so-called pro-farmer government is unable to control the spate of debt ridden farmer suicides in state…Suicide committed by farmer Surjeet Singh has once again brought to fore the monster of a crumbling agrarian economy of Punjab,” said Congress leader Sukhpal Khaira.
He pointed that NABARD report stated that the state’s farmers are facing a colossal debt of over Rs 51,000 crores, both institutional and of arhtiyas or commission agents.
Khaira also demanded that “no farmer should be arrested for default payment, as no industrialist is arrested and their crores of default loans are converted into non performing assets (NPA). All such default loans of the farmers should also be declared NPA, so that no farmer ends his life like Surjeet Singh”.