Farmer suicides: Punjab okays relief policy

CHANDIGARH: To provide relief to distressed families of farmers committing suicide in Punjab, chief minister Parkash Singh Badal on Tuesday approved a policy for creating a ‘revolving fund’ so that one-time monetary assistance of `3 lakh can be given to the next of kin of such farmers.

The ‘revolving fund’ for relief to the suicide-affected families would be created with the state revenue department to ensure timely relief to the affected families, a spokesman here said.

According to the policy, 25% of the relief amount would be paid to the mother and the remainder to the wife of the deceased. In case the mother is not alive, the full amount would be paid to the wife. The entire relief money would be paid to the dependent parents if the deceased was unmarried. A committee would be constituted to receive and verify documents to disburse the assistance with the deputy commissioner of the district as chairman and chief medical officer, senior superintendent of police and sarpanch of the victim’s village as members and chief agricultural officer as the member convener.