House committee on farmers' suicides tables report in Pb Assembly

A committee of Punjab Assembly today tabled a report in the House giving recommendations on farmers' suicides and the loan taken by them.

The panel report concluded that 76 per cent of the farmers who have committed suicides in recent years are from small and marginal category.

Among the recommendations made by the committee include the need for setting up a debt settlement and reconciliation commission for settling cases of those farmers who are unable to pay their loans.

The committee, headed by MLA Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria, in its report felt that it will help in convincing farmers to repay the loans with time relaxation or with a one-time settlement.

 

The committee has suggested that the members of the families of farmers who have committed suicide should be given all social security pensions from the date of the suicide.

In all, there are 69 recommendations in the panel report which also includes that the state should be divided into different zones depending on the mineral value of soils and other conditions.

The panel pointed out that in the absence of a clear agriculture policy, farmers were unable to come out of the water-guzzling crops -- wheat-paddy cycle.

While the minimum support prices for crops other than wheat and paddy have been fixed to give a boost to crop diversification, the full amounts were not being paid.

Farmers should be encouraged to share their tube wells and subsidy should be given to farmers who own less than five acre of land.

Talking to the reporters outside the Assembly, SAD MLA Harinder Pal Chandumajra said he had objected to the final report as his dissenting note was not included in it.

He said the government could not run away from its promise of a complete debt waiver.

Meanwhile, in the Assembly today, the Action Taken Report in the Narang Commission report was also tabled.

The Justice J S Narang Commission, set up last year, had probed allegations of irregularities in sand mining auctions in the state.

The report has given a clean chit to senior Congress leader Rana Gurjit Singh.

Singh had come under fire from the opposition for his alleged involvement in sand mining auctions.

He, however, had trashed the charge as baseless.