PATIALA: To ascertain the exact count of farmer suicides in the state, the government has finally decided to conduct the second round of survey, which would reveal the number of farm suicides from 2010 up to March 2013.
However, giving a cold shoulder to the demand for a fresh survey from various farmers’ organizations, who said that scores of cases were not recorded in the first survey conducted for 2000-2010 period, the state has decided that surveyors would record only those suicides which took place after 2010-11.
“There would be no relook on cases left out in the first round,” said an expert, who would be associated with the second round of survey.
Sources said the government had decided to conduct the second round of survey at a meeting with economists of Punjabi University, Patiala, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar and Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana on August 24. However, the decision was conveyed to the universities just a day back, they said.
The PAU would co-ordinate the entire survey and submit a report within one year, they added.
While Punjabi University will conduct survey in Hoshiarpur, Faridkot, Ropar, Fatehgarh Sahib, Muktsar, Mohali and Patiala districts, PAU would survey the worst affected Moga, Mansa, Barnala, Bathinda, Ludhiana and Sangrur districts. The remaining districts will be covered by GNDU.
Reacting to the government decision not to count the cases left out in the first round, Sukhdev Singh Kokri, general secretary of BKU (Ugrahan), said, “Not only recounting of leftover cases, we demand that the survey should be conducted afresh by taking 1991 as base year, when economic reforms were introduced in the agri sector. Since the government did not accept our demand, we will continue our agitation demanding inclusion of the cases excluded from the survey. There are scores of such cases in villages across Punjab.”
