The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday said the vicious cycle of suicides by the farmers, farm labourers and ordinary traders-shopkeepers has not stopped in Punjab despite the change of the Chief Minister in the state.

AAP’s farmers’ wing state president Kultar Singh Sandhwan today said another farmer Darshan Singh of Ghuduwala village in Mansa district was forced to consume poison after the cotton crop was destroyed and he could not bear the burden of debt.

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He said Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi was also doing nothing more than a drama. Despite visiting the pink bollworm affected area at Bathinda, the Congress government has not yet given any relief, said Sandhwan, adding that the Congress and the Badals had only announced debt waiver but no debt waiver was given to the farmers, labourers and small traders.

Sandhwan said the assistance of Rs 50 each given by the Punjab CM to the farmers killed in the violence at Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh was a good step. “But what is the Channi government doing for the farmers of Punjab?” he questioned.

The AAP leader said more than 700 farmers have been martyred during the ongoing farmers’ agitation. “Why is the Channi government not doing anything about them? Even today the farmers of Punjab are carrying the burden of debt whereas, in 2017, the Congress party had promised to waive all the debts of the farmers and labourers. Like the rule of the Badals, even today, poor quality of cotton seeds and useless pesticides were given to the farmers, due to which the cotton crop was ruined by the pink bollworm,” he said.

The AAP leader alleged the Channi government did not compensate the farmers for the damaged cotton crop nor did it fully waive the debt. Sandhwan said if the government had waived the entire debt of the farmers and provided them with good crop seeds and good pesticides, Darshan Singh and dozens of other farmers and farm labourers would not have embraced death.

“If the Congress government is truly sympathetic to the farmers, it should immediately waive the debts of the farmers. Provide financial assistance of Rs 50 lakhs each to the martyred farmers of Punjab on the lines of UP and immediately release compensation of at least Rs 50,000 to Rs One lakh per acre for cotton crop damage by pink bollworm,” he added.