A 40-year-old farmer in the Hoshiarpur district of Punjab allegedly committed suicide after consuming a toxic substance because he was disappointed with this season’s low wheat production. Manjit Singh, a farmer, was discovered dead with a suicide note in which he stated that he took this step due to insufficient wheat production this season.
According to Deputy Superintendent of Police (Garhshankar) Narinder Singh, the unfortunate event happened on Friday evening in Paddi Sura Singh village in Hoshiarpur. Manjit owned a little piece of farmland and had signed a contract for 18 acres, he owed Rs 17 lakh to banks. According to his brother Sarabjit, Manjit is survived by his wife and two boys, and he has requested that the state government compensate them.
According to Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ugrahan), 14 farmers have committed suicide in Punjab within April, with 11 of them in the Malwa region itself. Many farmers have committed suicide as a result of the stress caused by this season’s low crop yield, according to Shingara Singh Maan, vice president of BKU Ugrahan.
Due to the premature arrival of the heatwave, wheat farmers in Punjab have seen a decline in output and deformed grains. The low wheat crop yield has been a double blow for farmers with cotton yield already suffering this year due to pink bollworm infestation.
Furthermore, the farmer suicides have exacerbated political tensions in the state, with former Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu blasting the ruling Aam Aadmi Party and reminding it of its pre-election manifesto commitments. Sidhu reminded AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal of his manifesto promise, in which the Delhi CM declared that if his party was elected, no farmer in Punjab would commit suicide after April 1.
Sidhu slammed the AAP convenor on Saturday, urging him to quit lying. In a tweet, Sidhu wrote, “Despite @ArvindKejriwal ji’s guarantee that no farmer will commit suicide in Punjab after AAP assumes power, 7 farmers have committed suicide in Bathinda District alone. This yr crop yield is >30% low, on top of that govt is preparing to arrest 2000 farmers for loan defaults”
It is worth noting that Delhi Chief Minister and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal had promised that if his party won the Punjab Assembly elections, he would give farmers compensation for crop losses by April 30.
The Punjab government, according to Harjinder Baggi, head of BKU Ugrahan’s Bathinda section, should address the situation to prevent farmers from committing suicide.
Farmers in Punjab borrow more than farmers in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra
According to a study conducted by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) in collaboration with the Bharat Krishak Samaj, an average Punjab farmer borrows four times as much as his peers in Uttar Pradesh (UP) and more than five times as much as farmers in Maharashtra.
The analysis focused on the three-state governments’ recent farm loan waivers. It revealed that Punjab farmers borrowed the most money per farmer category among the three states, and their reliance on non-institutional sources was likewise the highest across all farmer categories.
A marginal farmer in Punjab borrows Rs 3.4 lakh per year, compared to Rs 84,000 and Rs 62,000 in UP and Maharashtra, respectively, according to the report.
Also, the report found that while the government reimbursed farmers’ debts, other departments’ budgets suffered as a result of former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s government’s agricultural loan waiver, which began in 2017. For instance, when most of the waivers were handed out in Punjab in 2018-19, the real spending of numerous other departments was reduced.
The agricultural debt waiver plan in Punjab, interestingly, was discovered to be largely financed by a loan taken out by the Punjab Mandi Board from a private bank. Waiver benefits were transferred via a loan from the Punjab Mandi Board. The Punjab Mandi Board charged an extra 1% cess on wheat and paddy arrivals at the Mandis to repay the debt. These funds were utilised to repay the above-mentioned debt.