Budh Singh’s loan to be waived in third phase

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Gurdaspur, January 11

The Chief Minister’s office has clarified that Budh Singh’s debt waiver case will be taken up in the third phase of the scheme.

The Tribune had published a report today on how the Kotli Surat Malhi farmer was sidelined, even though Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh had kick-started the debt waiver initiative from his house on October 16, 2016.

A spokesman for the CM’s office stated that Budh Singh had got the loan from Punjab Gramin Bank, which was not a state-owned bank.

“As of now, we are dealing with cases of farmers who have got crop loans from the state-owned cooperative banks. Budh Singh’s name is being included in the third list because he got the loan sanctioned from Gramin Bank, which is a subsidiary of a nationalised bank. The third phase deals with loanees of such public sector banks,” he said.

Sarabjit Kaur, wife of Budh Singh, confirmed that Gurdaspur administration officials had got in touch with the family. The farmer was called to the tehsildar’s office this morning and asked to submit documents.

Meanwhile, Congress legislator from Dera Baba Nanak Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa claimed that several farmers of his constituency were livid as only nominal amounts were being waived.

“A glaring faux pas has occurred on the part of the bureaucracy. The loan amount of Harminder Singh, a resident of Paparalli village, has been pegged at just Rs 107. Balwinder Singh of Khera Sultana village says that the total loan amount being waived is just Rs 6. I fail to understand why the bureaucracy is not involving the local MLAs while implementing the scheme. This is a Congress scheme and was named in the manifesto also. Hence we should be consulted,” said Randhawa.

A ruling party MLA has sent an SMS to Chief Principal Secretary Suresh Kumar, expressing “strong displeasure” at the turn of events.