Bringing alive the issue of farmers suicide in Punjab, the widows of the victims on Monday launched Congress party’s ‘Kisan Bus Yatra’ to highlight the SAD-BJP Government’s failure to protect the State’s farming community.
With a vow to “punish” the Badals for allegedly pushing the State’s farmers towards suicide, Punjab Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh started his three-day bus yatra which will cover over 500 kms in seven districts of Faridkot, ludhiana, Bathinda, Muktsar, Jalalabad and Ferozepur.
Symbolically, it was flagged off by the widows of nine debt-ridden farmers who committed suicide. Some of the women lost both their husband and son to the vicious cycle of mounting debt, said a State Congress spokesperson.
Capt Amarinder would address the kisan sabhas and mandi meetings in addition to the road-shows while several other senior party leaders are expected to join him on different stretches along the route.
Blaming the Badal Government for its alleged failure to help the farmers, Capt Amarinder assured the widows that “we will not forgive them for pushing you to such a state” and vowed to “punish” the Badals if his party is voted back to power.
He reassured the widows that he would immediately waive off all farm debts.
The former Chief Minister reiterated his commitment to resolve the problems of the farmers, whom he described as Punjab’s engine of growth and progress through the years.
Among the widows who met Capt Amarinder before the launch of the road show was Rajomajra’s Harbans Kaur whose husband Sohan Singh committed suicide over a debt of `four lakh. Congress has claimed that the Government, instead of helping her out, installed an electrical tower in the middle of her farmland, rendering it useless. Amarinder alleged that it was a typical example of the Badal Government’s insensitive and uncaring attitude towards farmers’ families.
For the yatra, the Congress State president is travelling in a specially-designed bus, equipped with all the basic facilities and which has a hydraulic platform from where he will address various farmer meetings along the way.