AAP, Congress blame SAD for rising number of farmer suicides

CHANDIGARH: Aam Admi Party and Congress are planning to launch an agitation against the Shiromani Akali Dal in Punjab over rising farmer suicides in the state saying the government’s anti-farmer policies were responsible for the plight.

"The farmers in Punjab are suffering as the agriculture has been made nonprofitable profession due to negligence by successive governments from 1947 to date. The farmers are so distressed that they are committing suicide at an alarming rate.It has been pointed by CAG that there is a stock shortage of Rs12000 Cr worth of grain in the stores of procurement agencies of Punjab. This adds to the agony of the farmers who are already committing suicide due to debt trap, "AAP spokesperson Sukhpal Khaira said.

The ruling SAD government pays out Rs5000 crore in power subsidy to farmers. Successive governments’ failure at crop diversification has seen ground water levels deplete dangerously while farm input costs have shot up in what was once the granary of India and the face of india’s Green revolution.