Panel report on suicides by farmers put forth in Punjab Assembly
Panel report on suicides by farmers put forth in Punjab Assembly Suicides by farmers and the loan taken by farm labourers was tabled in the Punjab Assembly here on Wednesday. 69 recommendations were put forth in the report submitted by the Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria committee on farm crisis. The following steps were recommended to ameliorate the lot of indebted farmers: *The members of the families of farmers who have committed suicide should be given social security pensions from the date of the suicide. *2.5-acre landholding and annual income of Rs 60,000 for widow pension and dependent pension should be waived. *Education of the children of such victims is not stopped for economic reasons. *The debt of such persons should be taken over by the government. *A sum of Rs 1 lakh should be given to the families of the farmers who commit suicide because of debt. The remaining compensation should be given to them in the form of fixed deposits. *Families without a pucca houses and do not have the wherewithal to construct these should be included in the government scheme. *No condition of time should be kept for seeking compensation from the government. Generally, the time granted for seeking compensation is 30 days. Talking to the media, Akali MLA Harinder Pal Chandumajra said he had objected to the final report as his dissenting report was not included in it. He said the government could not run away from its promise of a complete debt waiver. -PTC News
