Hope lost, 2 more farmers end life

Sangrur/abohar : Under stress due to rising debt, two more farmers in the state committed suicide in the past 24 hours. In the first incident, Gurmale Singh (28) of Ramgarh Jawandhe village in Sangrur allegedly consumed poison this morning. He died on the way to hospital. Gurmale owned only 2 acres of agricultural land. He had taken a loan of around Rs 3 lakh from private money lenders, but was not able to repay it. The lenders had started asking for their money. “Relatives have stated that Gurmale consumed poison due to mental stress caused by debt. We are conducting a probe,” said Gurpartap Singh, SHO of Chhajli police station. In a similar incident in Abohar, the body of Sher Singh Sandhu (26) who had gone away from his house in Sappanwali village on Friday evening was today found from a canal near Jandwala Meerasangla border village. Family sources said he was upset after his kinnow orchards got damaged due to waterlogging. He was finding it difficult to repay Rs 4 lakh borrowed from a commission agent (arhtiya) due to crop failure. The family had taken a loan of around Rs 3.5 lakh from a bank three months ago for his younger sister’s marriage. The family spotted his motorcycle and mobile phone near the canal outside Azamwala yesterday. The search finally led to the recovery of the body today.