Punjab: Ahrtiyas claim compensation package behind farmer suicides

Referring to the recent Barnala suicide case, where a farmer and his mother committed suicide, the association has threatened that those farmers who participated in dharnas in this particular case would not get any advances from the ahrtiyas in the future. He also said that the FIRs against ahrtiyas must be scrapped within a week, failing which they would start state-wide protests.

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“Our members will make a list of who all were part of protests following the suicides and act against them,” he said. He demanded an SIT investigation into the suicide by Baljeet Ballu and his mother Balvir Kaur. “Farmer union leaders were the ones who instigated the farmer to consume pesticide and later ahrtiya Teja Singh was blamed. This case was registered under pressure and it must be revoked.”

Babu Ram, from Sangrur Ahrtiya Association, and Dheeraj Kumar from Sangrur added, “A farmer mafia has been formed in the state. It launches stirs and later, in name of compensation, extort heavy amounts so as to settle the issues. This needs to be checked.”

Teja Singh and his friends Baljeet Singh and Baljeet Kairon are in jail while Teja’s sons Manpreet Singh and Jaspreet Singh are yet to be arrested in the case. Cheema condemned the government for favouring farmers and neglecting Ahrtiyas.

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