Payments locked in banks, farmers count their losses

Sarbjit Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Sangrur, December 25

Chhota Singh has anxiety writ large on his face. He is unable to find a way to return the money he had borrowed from relatives for his grandson’s marriage.  “The banks refuse to make payments owing to the cash crunch. How am I to return the money?” he asks, adding he has never felt so belittled before. 

A resident of Akalia village near Mansa, he is not the only one in this predicament.

Malkiat Singh of the same village says most farmers have yet to receive cash for the paddy sold some weeks ago. “The money has been deposited in our accounts, but banks refuse to make payments,” he says.

Mahan Singh grows vegetables. He has approached the local bank branch several times. “Each time I am told to come after a week.” He says he has been carrying the cheques in his pocket for the past four weeks. The functioning of cooperative banks, that cater to the rural population, has come to a near-standstill owing to the restrictions placed by the RBI.  

“Vegetable prices have plunged. Green pea is selling for Rs 5-6 per kg in the wholesale market, cauliflower Re 1,” says Mahan Singh, who had to turn his cauliflower crop into green fodder. 

Ajit Singh, a panchayat member of Grachaon village, says it has become a norm for villagers to queue up outside the bank past midnight. However, the cash invariably dries up by noon. “The consequences  could be disastrous with the suicide rate among farmers going up drastically,” warns Malkeet Singh.

As the Centre pushes for a cashless economy, the companies that procure milk have started paying via cheques. “But to encash these is a Herculean task,” rues Buta Singh. 

Starved of cash, farmers have stopped hiring daily wagers. “We have yet to pay for the combine harvesters hired for paddy,” says Ranjit Singh. “Farmers would earlier earn additional income by selling dry wheat fodder, but there are no buyers now.”