-The Hindu Business Line The focus must shift away from sops, to raising farmers’ income by promoting better seeds and rejuvenating soil health Agrarian crisis is staring on our face and, as usual, a flood of familiar suggestions have resurfaced. The political responses have been on expected lines. Fixing MSPs (minimum support prices) at 50 per cent over costs is as disastrous as it can get. There is no inherent incentive in cutting...

-Firstpost.com Sangrur (Punjab): It is difficult to imagine Jasmine Khan’s pain and agony at losing her 14-month-old son in 2016. Living in a two-room concrete house in a labyrinth of bylanes in Handiaya village of Barnala district in Sangrur Lok Sabha constituency, she wells up every time Bilal intrudes on her thoughts, no matter that it has been two years since he succumbed to blood cancer. She often tries to hide...

-PTI AMRITSAR: Protesting farmers in Punjab called off their agitation on Wednesday after Punjab and Haryana high court asked the state government to look into their demands. The farmers had been squatting on the rail tracks in Amritsar since March 4 in support of their demands, including full loan waiver, stopping the auction of land and arrest of farmers, and payment for sugarcane crop with 15 per cent interest. A petition seeking the...

-The Indian Express On Wednesday evening, a meeting had taken place between Cooperation Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, representatives of various banks and farmer union leaders. Ludhiana: ON THE fourth day of protests over banks taking action against farmers in cheque bounce cases, farmers’ groups sat on a dharna blocking the Ludhiana-Ferozpur state highway after talks with banks and government representatives failed. The farmers are protesting against banks’ practice of taking blank cheques...

-The Indian Express All the farmers who faced criminal action for defaulting on loans say they were made to sign on blank cheques. “If you write about our plight, will the government stop banks from sending us to jail?,” asks Ujagar Singh. The 60-year-old from Jhumba village in Bathinda district is among scores of Punjab Farmers who have been convicted or are facing trial in criminal cases of cheque-bouncing filed by banks...