Most farm suicide victims owned 5 acres or less, kin should get pension: Panel

CHANDIGARH: A Vidhan Sabha committee report has underlined that 76% of farmers who committed suicide in recent years in Punjab owned less than five acres of land, and recommended that families of all farm suicide victims should be given social security pensions.

The report, tabled in the assembly on the last day of the budget session on Wednesday, detailed that “45.61% of the farmers who committed suicides were marginal farmers, having less than 2.5 acres of land, whereas 30.53% were small farmers, having land between 2.5 acres and 5 acres”, quoting a survey done by the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana. It did not specify the timeline of this survey, though.

Among the 69 recommendations by the multi-party MLAs’ committee headed by Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria of the ruling Congress are changes in the co-operative sector, emphasis on decreasing dependency on agriculture, and changes in sanctioning of loans.

For social security pensions recommended to be payable from the date of the suicide, “The condition of 2.5-acre landholding and annual income of (not more than) ₹60,000 for widow pension and dependent pension should be waived in cases of family of farm suicide victims,” said the report. It added that the government should ensure that the education of the children of such victims “is not stopped for economic reasons”.

As for the existing provision of Rs 3 lakh compensation, the committee has recommended that Rs 1 lakh be given immediately and the remaining be given in the form of fixed deposits in banks. The condition of applying for it within 30 days should also be waived, it said.

The committee was constituted on June 19 last year by chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh during his reply to the governor’s address in the assembly.

It met 53 times, visited families of victims, and consulted more than 36 farmer unions, besides experts at PAU and the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID), an autonomous research institute headquartered in Chandigarh.

Akali MLAs staged a walkout when the report was tabled, as party MLA Harinder Pal Chandumajra, who was part of the panel, said his dissenting report was not included.