Suicide by farmer and aged mother in Jodhpur village of Barnala jolts Punjab

BARNALA: The spate of suicides by farmers and their family members is goping on unabated. A farmer and his old mother, residents of village Jodhpur in Barnala district had committed suicide after the ‘Ahrtiya’ (Commission agent threatened to grab their land for not paying the debt.
As many as 52 farmers had committed suicides in Punjab during the last about two months. The suicide by mother and son who consumed pesticides has jolted the Punjab and exposed the false claims of SAD-BJP government to waive off the debts of farmers and that financers would not be allowed to auction of grab the land of farmers facing debt.The victims have been identified as Baljit Singh Ballu(35) and his mother Balbir Kaur(62). The farmer had taken the laon from commission agent and mortgaged two acres of land. The farmer was not able to repay the loan due to crop failure. The commission agent accompanied by district civil and police officials had gone to take possession of the land. Fearing that they would be landless after land is taken over by commission agent, the farmer and his mother consumed the pesticides and both were decalred brought dead in the hospital.The Superintendent of Police(Detective) Swaran Singh Kahlon said that police had gone to facilitate possession of land in favour of commission agent after court orders.