Debt-ridden farmer ends life, kin claim 5th from family

BARNALA : Lovepreet Singh, 22, a debt-ridden farmer of Bhotna village, 21km from district headquarters, committed suicide by consuming a poisonous substance on Monday. He died on Tuesday, but the post-mortem was held on Wednesday.

His relatives and the local MLA have claimed that he was the fifth member from the family to have ended his life due to unpaid debt of around ₹8 lakh. His mother Harpal Kaur said, “My husband ended his life 18 months ago. We did not get any debt-waiver from the government. I am getting ₹750 per month as widow pension. We have 10 kanal land and ₹7-8 lakh loan.”

Barnala MLA Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer said, “The fifth member of an under-debt family of farmers committed suicide under a government, which came to power riding on the promise of farm debt waiver.”

Deputy commissioner Tej Partap Singh Phoolka said, “The victim’s father had taken a loan from the co-operative society and these dues, of ₹57,300, were waived off in 2018.” Police have initiated inquest proceedings under Section 174 (police to inquire and report on suicide etc) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CRPC).

LOAN WAIVER SCHEME EXPOSED: AAP

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab chief and Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann on Wednesday claimed that the suicide of Lovepreet, the 5th member to do so from the same family, had exposed the Captain Amarinder Singh government’s loan-waiver programme.

“The day Lovepreet’s father had committed suicide due to debt, the Captain government was holding a debt-waiver function in Mansa,” Mann, who visited the victim’s house, claimed, adding, “Farm debt has become an insurmountable problem today, which gets transferred in family lineages. Governments should bail out farmers from this vicious trap.”

He also demanding a special session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha on the agrarian crisis and continuing instances of suicides by farmers and farmhands in the state.