Punjab CM claims farmers' suicides have come down from 153 to 131

New Delhi: The Punjab government claimed on Monday that the number of farmers' suicide cases has gone down in one year under the Congress regime.

The new Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh asserted, "The cases have gone down. From 153 in March-September 2016, the figure has come down to 131 in the same period this year."

The CM office also declared, "A total of 997 farmer suicides were reported from March 2007 to March 2017, when the SAD-BJP regime was in power. Of these, 155 took place between January and December 2015 and 225 in 2016 – the last two years of the Badal rule."

According to Singh, a single farmer's death is a matter of concern for his government and thus he would not allow Oppositions' interferences to deviate state government's focus on farmers' welfare.

An official statement from CMO claimed, "Ball for the waiver of loans up to Rs 2 lakh for farmers with up to 5 acres of land, and payment of Rs 2 lakh to other small and marginal farmers, has been set rolling in June itself when the announcement was made in the Vidhan Sabha."

Punjab CM also claimed that his governance has put stress on re-orientation of agrarian policies to improve farmers' income through 'Agriculture Sustainability Mission'. The official statement also added, "The Congress government has initiated several steps in the past six months for the welfare of the farming community, whose growing debt burden is largely on account of non-remunerative MSP for crops, particularly wheat and paddy, as well as increase in cost of major inputs and near stagnation in crop productivity, among other factors."

According to the Punjab State Farmers' Commission and Punjabi University, Patiala, the debt per household which was about Rs 1.79 lakh in 2005-06 had gone up to Rs 4.74 lakh in 2014-15.