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Court to be moved on farmers' suicides

Sarabjit Pandher

Indian People's Tribunal to seek directions to Centre as well as State governments

LEHRAGAGGA (PUNJAB): The Indian People's Tribunal is going to move the Supreme Court to seek directions to the Centre as well as State governments to initiate steps to check suicides by farmers and ensure rehabilitation of their dependants. The special leave petition (SLP) will seek to focus attention on the misery of the farming community in Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra.

This was disclosed by the tribunal's convenor and leading Supreme Court lawyer, Colin Gonsalves, after chairing a jury which heard testimonies of at least 50 dependants of farmers who had committed suicide due to debt and other economic hardships borne out of the stagnating farm economy. The public hearing, titled "People's Tribunal on Farmers' Suicides in Punjab", was organised jointly by the Human Rights Network, Voluntary Health Association of Punjab and the Delhi-based NAVDANYA, in the Garib Parivar Fund complex here this past weekend.

The members of the tribunal's jury included former member of the Punjab Human Rights Commission (PHRC), T. S. Cheema, former Vice-Chairman of the National Minorities Commission, Bawa Singh, and President of the Association of Democratic Rights (AFDR), Hari Singh Tark.

Those who deposed before the tribunal belonged to the Sangrur, Mansa and Bathinda districts of Punjab. However, the maximum number of cases came from the Lehra and Andana blocks of Moonak sub-division, which falls in the Lehragagga Assembly constituency represented by Deputy Chief Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal and the Patiala Lok Sabha constituency represented by Preneet Kaur, wife of Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh.

Dismayed at the plight of the next of kin of the victims, Mr. Gonsalves said the root cause of the problem appeared to be unscrupulous practices by "aarhtiyas" (commission agents) who were illegal money lenders charging outrageous rates of interest. Giving details about the proposed SLP, Mr. Gonsalves said a plea would be made to seek a complete cancellation of recovery of various kinds of debts availed by the farmers, impose a ban on transfer of land and order steps to rehabilitate the widows as well as ensure free education to the children of the victims.

Presenting the case of his nephew, who committed suicide as his studies beyond the middle school had to be discontinued since the family could not afford it, Jeet Singh of Batal Khurd took strong exception to propaganda that the farmers were indebted due to conspicuous consumption and drug addiction. Quoting his own example, he said it was not possible to make both ends meet for his family, which consisted of him, his wife and aged father, while none of them consumed liquor nor owned a vehicle. He said in his village of 1,500 cultivators, only 300 owned tubewells, which spoke volumes about the high costs of inputs.

Ram Diya Singh presented before the tribunal more than a dozen widows from Bhulan, one of the 27 villages located along Punjab's border with Haryana, south of the Ghaggar river.

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