Punjab Cabinet waives loan worth Rs 67 crore of 4,750 Dalit families

The Punjab Cabinet on Tuesday approved a loan waiver for 4,750 Dalit families who had availed loans from the Punjab Scheduled Castes Land Development and Finance Corporation.

Loans worth Rs 67 crore taken by Dalit families have been waived off, said Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann after a Cabinet meeting.

These families had been running from pillar to post for many years to get a loan waiver, as they were unable to repay the loans, Mann said, adding that previous governments had failed to address their “genuine” problems.

It may be mentioned that the loan waiver for these Dalit families had been announced by the Finance Minister, Harpal Cheema, in March this year, when he presented his Budget estimates for 2025-26.

It received Cabinet approval today.

Cheema, who was accompanying the Chief Minister for the media briefing after the Cabinet meeting, said that the loan repayment rate in the Punjab Scheduled Castes Land Development Corporation was over 84 per cent.