Over 1 lakh farmers get Rs1,771-crore debt relief

Aman Sood

Tribune News Service

Baran (Patiala), December 7

Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Friday announced extension of the loan waiver scheme to farmers with landholdings of 2.5 to 5 acres. He said his government had written to the Centre about tackling the potato glut and ensuring export of sugar to Asian countries.

Capt Amarinder gave debt relief certificates against commercial bank loans to the tune of Rs 1,771 crore to 1,09,730 eligible marginal farmers of four districts.

The amount was being transferred directly to the commercial bank accounts of marginal farmers and the process would be completed by Saturday, the Chief Minister said at a state-level function. He symbolically handed over debt relief certificates to 25 farmers from Patiala, Ludhiana, Sangrur and Fatehgarh Sahib.

“Farmers with landholdings of 2.5 to 5 acres will get debt waiver for both cooperative and commercial banks and my government will waive the loans of the landless labourers in the subsequent phases of the implementation of the waiver scheme,” he said.

The Chief Minister announced that 2.15 lakh small farmers who had taken loan from cooperative banks would be covered in the third phase, while 50,752 small farmers who had taken loan from commercial banks would be covered in the fourth phase.

Underlining the need to export sugar and potatoes to Central Asian countries, the Chief Minister said he had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to include these items in the export list, which was cleared yesterday.

Capt Amarinder expressed concern about the problem of spurious seeds, agri-chemicals and other inputs that reach the farmers and said he would not allow this to happen.

“The outstanding debt had increased more than fourfold, to Rs 2,08,000 crore, by the time SAD-BJP government’s term ended and the Congress government has been working hard to ensure financial benefits to the farmers to transform the farming sector,” MLA Hardyal Singh Kamboj said. Former Union minister Preneet Kaur lauded the Punjab government for taking its prestigious debt relief programme to the next level.

Sunil Jakhar, PPCC chief, said Punjab had witnessed a steep decline in the number of farmer suicides, which was nearly 1,000 in a year during the SAD-BJP rule, but had now come down to 250-300 due to the pro-farmer initiatives of the Capt Amarinder government.

Also present on the occasion were Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, Rural Development and Panchayats Minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Technical Education Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, Industries Minister Sham Sunder Arora, PWD Minister Vijay Inder Singla, Health Minister Brahm Mohindra, Power Minister Gurpreet Singh Kangar and Animal Husbandry Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu.