Farmer suicides: AAP says kin await compensation for years

CHANDIGARH: AAP’s RTI wing co-convener Dinesh Chadha on Sunday claimed that families of farmers who had committed suicide had to wait for years to get compensation.
In a statement issued here, Chadha claimed that he had found such cases in information procured under the RTI Act. Chadha claimed that that he had come across four farm suicides in deputy CM Sukhbir Badal’s constituency, Jalalabad, where the family of the deceased had not been compensated by the government.
He said that one Chet Ram from Rupnagar village in Jalalabad had committed suicide on June 27, 2015, but his family was yet to be compensated. He claimed that there were more such cases — of Thakar Singh from Mullyavali village who committed suicide on September 29, 2015; Amarjit Singh from Mullyavali village who took his life on October 8, 2015; and Shinder Pal Singh from Khudoj village who killed himself on June 10, 2012. “In spite of several communications, their families had not received any kind of compensation till November 21, 2016, shows information given by Fazilka deputy commissioner,” he said.
Chadha said compensation had been given to the family of only one farmer in Jalalabad, Nirvair Singh from Panka village who had committed suicide on December 21, 2015.
“When the condition of such families is so pathetic in Sukhbir Badal’s own district, then what will be the condition of the remaining places? Once AAP comes to power, no farmer in Punjab will commit suicide,” he claimed.