Rural debt doubles to Rs 80,000 crore in 7 years | Most deaths reported in Bathinda, Mansa, Muktsar
Chandigarh: With the rural indebtedness in Punjab’s predominant agrarian economy touching Rs 80,000 crore, each rural household in the state is under a debt of an average Rs. 8 lakh. Or simply put, 89 per cent of the 10.53 lakh households in Punjab are under debt.
This also shows how rural indebtedness in the state has more than doubled over the years. It was around Rs. 35,000 crore in 2009-10.
These are some of the grim findings of a survey conducted by the state’s three premier universities — Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana; Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar; and, Punjabi University, Patiala — to study the incidence of farmer suicides between April 2010 and March 2013, across Punjab.
The study, conducted after a door-to-door survey of each farmer household across 12,500 villages of the state, is being conducted on behalf of the Punjab Government. The aim is to identify the affected families and provide some monetary relief to them. The final report is expected to be presented by mid of this month.
Though Dr. Sukhpal Singh, declined to comment on the exact figures of farmer suicides during the period under study, he said over 80 per cent of those who committed suicide were cotton growers.
Over the years, the cotton crop has failed to give the desired results. The growers faced crop failures because of whitefly attack or got poor remuneration in both domestic and international market.
Most suicide cases have been reported in Bathinda, Mansa, Muktsar, Faridkot, Sangrur, Barnala and Ferozepur districts. “The incidence of suicide in these districts and the reasons for suicides are almost similar in the present study as during the previous studies,” he said.
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