Farmers with Rs 10-lakh loan, five acres of land to get back cheques

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, March 19

BKU Ekta Ugrahan members on Tuesday held a meeting with banks officials at the SDM office in the District Administrative Complex (DAC) here. At the meeting, it was decided that banks would return the cheques of those farmers who had taken a loan of up to Rs 10 lakh for agriculture or related works and owned five acres of land.

BKU Ekta Ugrahan district president Shingara Singh Mann said, “They had staged a protest in front of Cooperative Agriculture Development Bank from March 12 to 15 and returned the cheques of the farmers and the Bathinda SDM had assured a meeting for today with other banks officials regarding returning the cheques of the farmers.”

Farmer leaders alleged banks, arhtiyas and other financial organisations had illegally taken blank cheques from farmers before giving them loans.

They said later these banks and organisations were misusing these cheques by depositing these for clearance.

They said the state government was not taking any action against the illegal recovery of loans by banks using the blank cheques. They were also demanding complete loan waiver for the farmers who cannot repay the loan.

They also sought Rs10-lakh compensation for the family of growers who committed suicides, government job to one of their family members and implementation of the Swaminathan Commission recommendations. Moreover, they also demanded that the state government should stop “forced debt recovery” and release the arrested farmers.