Chandigarh: Opposition Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today said the Punjab Assembly Committee's report on farmers' suicides in the state was a "cruel joke" on farmers and farm labourers as it did not come out with a rehabilitation package for families of those who committed suicide.  

The report, which was tabled on the concluding day of the Punjab Assembly's Budget session yesterday, had concluded that 76 per cent of the farmers who have committed suicides in recent years are from small and marginal category.  

The SAD said the report also failed to recognise the fact that implementing a comprehensive loan waiver had become a necessity. "It is shocking that the Assembly's committee headed by Congressman Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria did not bring out the true picture of its interactions with families of those who committed suicide," SAD spokesman Maheshinder Singh Gewal said. 

"It is also shameful that the Congress government decided to table the all-important report in the Vidhan Sabha at the fag end of the session without having a debate on the issue," he said. Even SAD member Harinderpal Chandumajra, who wrote a dissenting note on the report, was not allowed to speak on the issue in the Assembly, the former minister said in a statement.  

Grewal claimed the families of those who committed suicide had allegedly held the Congress government responsible for their plight. "Nearly all 400 suicides committed in Punjab during the last one year are a direct result of non-implementation of the complete farm loan waiver promise made by the Congress in the run up to the Assembly elections. 

"The then Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh handed over signed affidavits to farmers assuring complete waiver of their loans and assuming responsibility for the same," he said. This is the reason why farmers who could even afford to pay their installments defaulted on them and are now in no position to pay up the accumulated debt, Grewal claimed.  

The SAD leader said this single assurance had also destroyed the cooperative sector as well as the rural farm economy. He alleged that the farmers who had defaulted on cooperative loans were now being charged double interest rates while those who had defaulted on short term loans were being charged a penal interest of three per cent.  

The Akali leader said it was a "cruel joke" on farmers that the Assembly Committee was talking about diversification but was silent on offering an immediate rehabilitation package for families of those who committed suicide. Grewal said no package was even offered for farm labourers' families, whose kin had committed suicide. 

"Even the promise of giving government job to next of kin of those who committed suicide has not been implemented," he claimed. Notably, the Punjab Vidhan Sabha Committee had given a number of recommendations in its report on farmers' suicides and the loan taken by farm labourers.  

Among the recommendations made by the committee include the need for setting up a debt settlement and reconciliation commission for settling cases of those farmers who are unable to pay their loans.  

The Committee, headed by MLA Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria, in its report felt that it will help in convincing farmers to repay the loans with time relaxation or with a one-time settlement. PTI