The Punjab farmer’s total debt has increased 400% in nine years from Rs. 5, 700 crore in 1998 to Rs. 21, 064 crore in 2006

Badal Government ought to provide relief to the debt-ridden Sikh farmer instead of granting tax relief to the wealthy Durgiana temple



Washington, D.C., Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - A recent survey carried out by a panel of three economic experts of Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, (Dr Sukhpal Singh, Manjeet Kaur and H.S. Kingra) on behest of the Punjab State Farmers Commission, has come to a very grim conclusion about the plight of the debt-ridden, suicide-prone, farmer in the Sikh Homeland of Indian occupied Punjab.

The Survey (covering 20 blocks of 11 districts in Punjab) reports that 89% of the farming households in the Sikh Homeland are under heavy debt. The total indebtedness of the farm sector (predominantly Sikh) was estimated at over Rs 210 billion or Rs. 21,064 crore. Nearly 12.8% (of these 89% indebted farming households) were found to be in the very high stress level of indebtedness approaching bankruptcy, (i.e. when the loan is more than two years of a family’s income or indebtedness is more than 200 per cent of income) and there is no way the farmer could repay the loan. No wonder many of these farmers have found solace in suicide to escape the usurious Bania/ ‘money lender’. Is anybody listening in Chandigarh?

The Punjab Agricultural University survey looked at a total of 600 farm households, comprising 107 marginal farm households (up to 1 ha), 150 small farms (1.01 to 2 ha), 153 semi-medium farms (2.01 to 4 ha), 87 medium farms (4.01 to 6 ha) and 103 large farms (above 6 ha) for the reference year 2005-06. The institutional sources contributed 62 per cent (Rs.16, 596 crore) of the total debt of Rs 21,064 crore. The rest of the debt (Rs. 4, 518 crore) comes from the non-institutional sources like the Bania/ money lenders. The total debt per sample farm household from both institutional and non-institutional sources is Rs 1,78,934. The debt per indebted farm in the state is over Rs 2 lakh. The survey says that the indebtedness per indebted household is the highest in the south-western region (Rs 2,85172), followed by central region (Rs 55,195). In the cotton belt all farm household groups are highly indebted. The average debt for marginal and small farmers ( Rs 1,80,000) in this region is more than the average debt of all the farm categories in the semi-hilly region and of the marginal and small farmers in the central region. The farmers having tractors are more heavily indebted. Those who are with tractors have an average debt of Rs 2,64,320 as compared to Rs 99,589 for those without tractors. The case of marginal and small farmers with tractors is even worse and suicide seems to be the only option for many of these folk.

To get an idea of how much the suicidal debt burden of the Punjabi Sikh farmer has spiraled, the reader is urged to go back nearly nine years, to Khalistan Calling of 19 Aug., 1998, headlined, ‘Miserable Plight Of the Debt-Ridden Punjabi Farmer (> http://khalistan-affairs.org/home/khalistancalling/1998/august19.aspx <) in which the then Badal government was warned that, “The Punjab governments financed study on rural credit, in the year 1997, has reported that Sikh farmers in the Indian occupied Sikh majority state of Punjab were under a debt of Rs. 5,700 crores (fifty seven billion rupees) and pay an annual interest of Rs. 1,102 crores (or eleven billion one hundred and two rupees). Despite this factual study the Badal government has failed to ease the burden of the rural Sikh. The Indian occupied Punjab state government (under Parkash Singh Badal) has passed no law and issued no directive to protect the farmer. It has given no stern warning to the money-lenders and finance companies that the government would intervene in favor of the farmers if they are unable to repay the loans given for non-productive purposes by the ‘Bania and the Babu’ mafia. In fact the so-called farmer friendly Badal government has done zilch for the Sikh farmer groaning under the burden of debt which keeps mounting every year.” The tragedy is that in the past 20 years the cost of inputs in farming has risen over five times while the yield per acre has come down. Despite a number of suicides (in the hundred) by farmers in the Punjab, and other Indian states, the issue has not been allowed, by the vested interests, to snowball into a major politico-economic issue which could have resulted in the reform of an ailing and neglected agriculture sector.” End quote.

Another related grim report in the Tribune, by Sarbjit Dhaliwal, headlined, ‘Subsoil water over-exploited in 103 blocks,’ (> http://www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20070426/punjab1.htm#17 <) states that mapping done by the local regional office of the Central Ground Water Board with regard to the use of ground water, indicates the state of Punjab is heading for self- destruction because of the excessive use of ground water for agricultural and other purposes. The Tribune report points out that, “Of the 137 development blocks mapped by the board's scientists, 103 are over-exploited ones as far as the use of subsoil water is concerned. Five blocks are at a critical stage and four at a semi-critical stage. Blocks falling in the the safe zone number 25. In fact, in the safe zone are mostly those blocks where the subsoil water is unfit for drinking as well as for irrigation. In blocks like Amloh, Tarn Taran, Barnala, Dhuri, Nihalsingwala, Bhikhi, Bhawanigarh and many others the over-exploitation of subsoil water is more than 200 per cent. Simply put, it means that if 100 litres of water goes into the subsoil as replenishment in these particular blocks, 200 litres is extracted through tubewells and other means. There are about 12 lakh tubewells, mostly operated on electricity, in Punjab.”

The above Tribune report goes on to say that when asked to comment on the grim subsoil water scenario in the state, S. Marwaha, senior scientist in the Central Ground Water Board said that, “In the Sangrur belt, the water level has gone down by 8 metres to 16 metres in the past 28 years. The same is the case in the Moga area. The water table is going down by 10 cm to 60 cm per annum in certain areas of Punjab. Free power given by the Punjab state government to its farmers to operate 12 lac tubewells and the growing of the paddy crop, which is also called a water-guzzling crop, has led the state on the path of self-destruction. Because of the emerging alarming situation, the Central Ground Water Board has taken certain steps to regulate the extraction of water in certain over-exploited blocks. The central ground water authority has issued a notification that no person, organization or agency (government or non- government) shall undertake the process of drilling, construction, installation of any new structure , scheme or project of ground water development without the specific approval of the deputy commissioners concerned in Moga-I, Moga-II, Sangrur, Mahal Kalan, Malerkotla-II ( Ahmedgarh) development blocks. In other words, no new energized tube-well or other such structure can be installed for the extraction of ground water in these blocks without the permission of the Deputy Commissioner concerned.” Some hypocracy!

It is strange that S. Marwaha, senior scientist in the Central Ground Water Board conveniently forgot to mention that Punjab’s underground water is not being augmented because of lack of natural replenishment by the water of Ravi, Beas and Sutlej rivers which is being siphoned and transferred free of charge, via link canals, to non-riparian Hindu-majority Rajasthan and Haryana states. Over the years this river water theft has resulted in destruction of the forest cover in Punjab which is now less than the forest cover in the desert state of Rajasthan which has 4.62 per cent of its total area under forests. In Punjab the forest cover has dwindled to 3.14 per cent of the total area. Incidentally, the % of forest cover in the Punjab is now the lowest in the country. As per the latest report of the Forest Survey of India (FSI), the dense forest cover in Punjab has decreased by a whopping 80,600 hectares obviously from lack of water among other things. (> http://www.punjabnewsline.com/content/view/2981/40/   <)

Nine years ago we had urged the then Chief minister Parkash Singh Badal to intervene effectively to prevent the Sikh farmers from getting caught in a vicious debt trap without taking away from them the right to borrow. All the Punjab Chief minister had to do, we suggested was to use his majority in state legislature to pass a law that, “the Punjab government will intervene in favor of the beleaguered farmers if they are unable to pay the interest, or the principle, on loans taken from moneylenders and cooperatives. He could also legislate a three years holiday on interest's payments to give time to the Punjabi farmer to recover from his debt-ridden squalor.

Alas! Mr. Parkash Singh Badal paid no heed to the free advice tendered to him in all sincerity in 1998. And, look what has happened to the poor ‘Sikh farmer’ in the Punjab? The Sikh farmer of Punjab  has been driven to suicide, and into squalor, as the collective debt burden has gone up by 400%, over the past eight miserable years, and now (in 2006) stands at over Rs 210 billion or Rs. 21,064 crore as compared to Rs. 5,700 crores (fifty seven billion rupees) in 1998.  Despite this tragic fact what did Punjab Chief minister Parkash Singh Badal do last week? He forgot the Sikh farmer again and had the audacity to direct the Excise & Taxation department to grant exemption of VAT on the construction material and ration items used for the community kitchen (Langar) and ‘parshad’ prepared in the wealthy Durgiana Mandir Amritsar being built as an architectural duplicate of the glorious, holy Darbar Sahib, implying, as if we monotheistic Sikhs are a caste of polytheistic Hinduism.(> http://www.punjabnewsline.com/content/view/3850/38/ <)  Shame on you Mr. Badal!