Victims' families staged protest

Farm suicides in the CM's home district are a blot on an agrarian state like Punjab. What is worse when compensation is also not provided and the victims' families struggle and wait for years without the promised financial help coming their way.

Farm suicides in the CM's home district are a blot on an agrarian state like Punjab. What is worse when compensation is also not provided and the victims' families struggle and wait for years without the promised financial help coming their way.

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Some members of families of farmers who reportedly committed suicide protested outside the offices of deputy commissioners on Monday to press for their cases of compensation.

Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union claims that more than 520 farmers and farm labourers have committed suicide, surrendering to the financial crisis in the home district of Punjab Chief minister Parkash Singh Badal in last two decade.

The union purports to have collected data that prove that 450 labourers committed suicide in Muktsar district alone and only 48 families have been given compensation money of Rs 1 lakh against the announced figure of Rs 2 lakh.

The union also claims to have collected names and address of 1,200 families alone from the Bathinda district, who have suffered due to farm suicides and the agrarian policy in the state.

"The government survey on the farm labour suicide is not reliable and mocks at the affected families. No government officials was ever seen collecting data or visiting the houses of villagers," said Lashman Singh, leader, Khet Mazdoor