The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Tuesday, June 27, 2000,
Chandigarh, India

THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS

50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

M A I N N E W S

Debt-ridden farmers cry for help
By Sarbjit Singh
Tribune News Service

HARKISANPURA (Bathinda), June 26 — Pale looks, weary smiles and creased faces in this village reflect woes of debt-ridden farmers.

So abject is their poverty that they didn't celebrate the gurpurb this year. Circumstances have forced them to put up their land for sale. The debt crisis has ploughed deep furrow in their lives.

Hardships have forced the farmers to postpone marriages of their children. Commission agents and money lenders have got the land of a number of farmers mortgaged. They also use the police to get their money back. Obviously relations between commission agents and farmers are souring. One can guess the level of poverty in which the farmers have sunk from a story narrated by Mr Gurdev Singh, a former Sarpanch. "I am without teeth for the past 10 years because there is no money to buy a denture. My wife Mohinder Kaur is also without teeth for the past four years. For making a denture for her, Rs 300 was given in advance to a doctor who had demanded Rs 1500. The denture is ready for the past three years, but for want of money we could not collect it ".

Mr Gurdev Singh has already sold his three and half acres to pay the debt, still Rs 2 lakh are due to him. His two graduate sons are unemployed and work in fields. "I spent money on them by borrowing from here and there with a hope that they would get employment but no one gives job without money", he adds with a choked throat and misty eyes.

Farmers have been virtually crying from their roof tops for the past several months. But no one has turned up to pull them out of the suffering. At least three times they have knocked the door of the Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, but he has also not been stirred by their cry.

In fact, the farmers have petitioned Mr Badal for buying their land to get them out of the debt trap. The petition reveals a very pathetic tale of the village. And it also exposes the ugly side of the Green Revolution.

"For the past two years we have not been able to get our sons and daughters married off. Under compulsion we are postponing their marriages. The government should come to our help by buying our land and install some factory here. Our loans should be waived to enable us to perform our social responsibilities". Thus reads the petition. It is signed by the Sarpanch , Mrs Malkeet Kaur, three other members of the panchayat, including Mr Maghar Singh, Mr Gurcharan Singh, Mrs Chinder Kaur and several other residents of the village.

"If the government at this difficult time does not help us, then the situation can force the farmers to adopt some wrong path", the petition states further. In the petition, they have reminded Mr Badal that they had met him at his residence to narrate their tale of misery.

Mr Gurjant Singh, a former Sarpanch and the husband of Mrs Malkeet Kaur, present Sarpanch, said that "heartless" Badal Government had not cared even once to send a team of its high officials to "study" the crisis faced by local inhabitants. "Now we have stopped approaching the government. We feel that it is an entity which has no concern for its people", say the farmers.

So far the villagers have got only one vague letter from the Directorate of Institutional Finance and Banking. It appears from the contents of the letter that the officers concerned have failed to understand the problem faced by the farmers.

Quizzed about the non-celebration of the Gurpurb this year, Mr Gurjant Singh said that no one was prepared to contribute money for the celebration, which has been an annual feature in the village for the past 15 years.

Except a few, all other farmers are under heavy debt. Take the case of Gurjant Singh, the husband of present Sarpanch. They are four brothers and the loan of banks and commission agents due against them is nearly Rs 9 lakh.

Another farmer Mr Ram Singh says that the loan amount against him is nearly Rs 10 lakh, but the amount would double if the loan amount of his sons is also added. Mr Ram Singh has over 30 acres. Same is true in case of Mr Ajaib Singh. He says that he was under the debt of Rs 6 lakh. Of this he owes Rs 3 lakh to commission agents. The fact is that the most of the farmers have taken loan almost from all commercial banks at Rampura Phul and other nearby towns.

According to an estimate, the farmers owe Rs 3 crore to various financial institutions and commission agents. Revenue officials concerned confirm that the farmers have almost mortgaged their entire land to various financial institutions to secure loans under one pretext or other.

Not only this village, but farmers in nearby Jhanduke village have also been caught in the debt trap. An official of the of the Agriculture Cooperative Society, which caters to Harkisnpura, Jhanduke, Nandgarh Kotra and Gahri Buttar villages, told TNS that the loan amount of Rs 28 lakh was due to farmers of these villages. There are several farmers in both villages who have either mortgaged their land to commission agents or to others.

Why is it so? There is no proper source of irrigation in Harkisanpura village. Canal water comes to the village through a tributary emerging from Joga minor. The village gets just a trickle of water which is not enough even to irrigate an acre of land in 10 hours. Sub-soil water is unfit for irrigation as it is salty and bitter.

For the past 15 years or so, farmers are surviving on a single wheat crop. Earlier cotton used to be the main kharif crop, but due to repeated attacks of bollworm, the crop became unviable. Paddy yield is just 15 quintals per acre. "Paddy does not cover even the expenditure on its transplantation and harvesting", says Mr Ram Singh.

The story of a farmer family caught in the debt trap in Dikh village is very pathetic. The family has over 30 acres. It was to pay Rs 7.50 lakh to a commission agent. Unable to pay the debt, it has mortgaged 11 acres to the commission agent.

One member of the family Mr Nazar Singh is down with depression since the mortgaging of the land. The family says that the agent was asking for more amount than the family had borrowed. They feel cheated .

Due to debt, both brothers have withdrawn their sons-Jagir and Maghar-from school. "Earlier we used to engage two farm hands to help us and it used to cost Rs 50,000. But now we have put our sons in place of the servants", said Mr Desu. Other farmers in the village say that money lenders have bought a large chunk of land of indebted farmers.