Punjab Agriculture University (PAU), Ludhiana is all set to submit the much-awaited report on suicides committed by farmers in Sangrur and Bathinda. It has been ascertained that the department is giving final touches to the report which is being prepared by the department of economics and will be presented before the department of financial commissioner (development) within a week. RS Sidhu, head, department of economics, PAU, who headed the team to conduct the survey declined to divulge the details of the report as he has special instructions from the state government to remain tight-lipped on the findings of the report.
The team of PAU which had begun its survey in August, 2008, carried out a door-to-door study scanning 576 villages of Sangrur and 306 villages of Bathinda. Sangrur and Bathinda being a cotton belt are considered to be the worst affected areas and reportedly many farmers had committed suicides in this belt due to failure of the cotton crop.
The study aimed discovering the various reasons behind the suicides including inability to repay the debt, poor
living condition of farmers or some other motives. The survey has taken into account farmer suicides which occurred after April 1, 2005, and has also included the cases of suicides committed by the farm labourers.
Having felt the need of census on farmers suicide in Punjab, the state government had directed the PAU to initiate the study to ascertain the exact number of suicides committed by farmers. Intitally, the state government thought to conduct survey in Sangrur and Bathinda on pilot basis.
Chief secretary of Punjab, Ramesh Inder Singh had earlier said that if the survey is successful then similar kind of study would be conducted in other districts as well. The course of action of the state government will depend on the findings of the survey. He had also said that the survey would be submitted to the central government to extend support to aggrieved families. Interestingly, it may be noted here that the total lifting of wheat from Punjab in 2007-08 remained at 92.72 lakh tonne and Sangrur district remained at second slot contributing 9,20,642 tonne of procurement.