At the time when 11-year-old Manmeet Singh has to be in school at Bathinda taking lessons, he was on Chandigarh’s streets, carrying the picture of his father, who had committed suicide due to Rs five lakh debt, with eyes full of tears, seeking “justice” from the Congress-led Punjab Government.
“Nothing has been done to mitigate our woes even now. Sannu jhothe laare laye si sarkar ne (The government had made false promises with us),” said Manmeet, before breaking down.
He, along with hundreds others, laid siege to the road that led to Punjab Vidhan Sabha on the first day of the budget session staging a massive protest on Tuesday with the support of the SAD-BJP.
No less than 300 farmer suicide victim families, led by SAD patriarch Parkash Singh Badal and party president Sukhbir Badal along with the Youth Akali Dal (YAD) volunteers marched towards the Vidhan Sabha complex holding framed pictures of their fathers or sons or husbands to build pressure on the Congress Government to fulfil its promise of providing a government job, besides Rs 10 lakh compensation to every family affected by farmers’ suicide.
They also accused the State Government of not honouring its promise to waive off the entire farm loans of Rs 90,000 crore.
The protestors were stopped by the Chandigarh police on the road leading towards the Capitol Complex, where all the significant buildings including Civil Secretariat, Vidhan Sabha, Punjab and Haryana High Court, are situated with heavy barricades and riot police armed with water guns.
Undeterred, the protesters sat on dharna on the road, and narrated their plight. The SAD-BJP legislators, after staging a protest walk-out in the House, later also joined the protestors.
Many family members narrate the harrowing tales of how they lost their men, burdened with heavy debt, and the woes thereafter. Many told how the suicide notes blamed the Congress Government for the mounting debt.
“My father had written in his suicide note that Capt Amarinder and the Congress Government are responsible for his death,” said Suvinderpal Singh of Ajnala.
Jaspal Kaur from Fatehgarh Sahib, her eyes moist with tears, did not mince a word to blamed the Congress Government for “doing nothing for me...I have lost my husband, and even my both sons...they all have committed suicide because of debt”.
Badal, addressing the gathering, assured the victim families that SAD would fight their battle and ensure justice was meted out to them. He also asked Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh to honour his commitment on complete loan waiver for farmers or quit. “CM has not only backstabbed the poor, beleaguered and even bereaved farmer families, but also gone back on the oath he took on the holy Gutka Sahib,” he said.
Referring to Capt Amarinder’s query on what SAD-BJP government had done for farmers, Badal said that the total amount of loan which Capt Amarinder has promised to waive is less than just the amount waived off by SAD-BJP merely in the shape of free power to farmers worth Rs 6,000 crore every year for 15 years.
“We also took unprecedented decisions like hiking the crop loss compensation from Rs 2000 to Rs 8000 per acre. In fact, if we add all the relief measures taken by the SAD-BJP, it would total up to Rs 1.5 lakh crore during our tenures. What does the Captain government have to show in comparison?” he asked.
SAD president Sukhbir said that the party would first take the plight of farmers to the State Governor and then if need, the party will launch a state-wide agitation to ensure the promises made to them were honoured.