Punjab farmer's suicide: Rahul Gandhi expresses sadness, urges govt to take action

New Delhi: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday expressed sadness at the death of the farmer who he had met during his tour of Punjab.

Rahul also said that the farmers in India were in distress and urged the Centre and state governments to take action.

Office of Rahul Gandhi posted the following on Twitter quoting the Congress VP: “Extremely sad to hear of the death of Sardar Surjit Singh who I met when I visited Punjab. My deepest condolences to his family.”

Another post read: “Farmers in our country are in deep distress. I urge the Modi-Badal government to take action and not continue to ignore their plight.”

Extremely sad to hear of the death of Sardar Surjit Singh who I met when I visited Punjab. My deepest condolences to his family. (1/2)

— Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) June 11, 2015

Farmers in our country are in deep distress.I urge the Modi-Badal Govt to take action &not continue to ignore their plight:Rahul Gandhi(2/2) — Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) June 11, 2015

pic.twitter.com/7D7D5BL00I— Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) June 11, 2015

A debt-stressed farmer, who recently met Rahul and told him about agrarian problems, yesterday allegedly committed suicide by consuming poisonous substance.

The family of the farmer 60-year-old Surjit Singh, a resident of Dadumajra village in Fatehgarh Sahib district, claimed that his debt was mounting and he was unable to pay back the loan from bank and others.

Surjit Singh (60) had taken a loan of Rs ten lakh from bank and other persons but could not repay, the family claimed, as per PTI.

He also could not get good yield from his crop due to unseasonal rains in March and April this year.

The farmer had cultivated his land taken on lease.

Singh had met Congress VP during his Sirhind grain market visit in April this year.

According to state Congress leaders, Surjit Singh had briefed Rahul about the problems faced by Punjab farmers that included problems in selling their paddy and farmers committing suicide.

Rahul had after his recent Punjab visit raised the issue of farmers in Lok Sabha.

When contacted, Fatehgarh Sahib SSP Gurmeet Singh Randhawa had said that the police registered a case under Section 174 (suspicious death) of CrPC in farmer's suicide case.

Randhawa said that the family of the farmer had told the police that he was under "depression".

(With PTI inputs)