Neel Kamal (ToI)
Chandigarh: A death underlines the small farmers’ struggle for fair income in a so-called Punjab of agricultural prosperity. Shubhkaran Singh, 22, leaves behind a family that had to sell off an acre of its 3.5-acre land to run the household and marry off its eldest daughter. He’s gone, while the loan waiver he fought for hasn’t come.
Despite the distress sale of land, the family from Ballo village in Rampura Phul subdivision of Punjab’s Bathinda district remains in Rs 10 lakh of debt. Its hope for better days after struggle died with Shubhkaran at Khanauri on Wednesday. Already he had lost his mother, while his father operated a school van for meagre wages. The promise of winning family debt waiver had made Shubhkaran, Gaggu to fellow villagers, heed farmer unions’ call to join the agitation.
His BKU (Ekta Sidhupur) batch came to Khanauri on way to Delhi. His uncle, Buta Singh, said: “He had called back at the village in the morning and said they will march forward at 11am, but an hour later, we got another call that he was injured in police firing and then yet another call that he was no more.” The mourners at Subhkaran’s house demanded compensation for the family and a government job for his younger sister.
Courtesy Note: This news report was originally published in Times of India (reported by Neel Kamal) under title “https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chandigarh/22-year-old-bathinda-farmer-dies-for-waiver/” with source url – . It is re-published here for the information of readers of Sikh Siyasat News. We are thankful to the original publisher and author.