Nearly 5.63 lakh farmers to be benefitted as Punjab Govt waive off all farm loans; A ‘New Year’ gift

Mansa, January 8: Giving up a massive relief to farmers of Punjab, the state government led by Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Sunday announced to waive off all farm loans under which nearly 5.63 lakh farmers would be benefitted.

 

While addressing a massive gathering at the launch of his government’s historic farm debt waiver scheme in Mansa, he said a total of 5.63 lakh farmers would benefit in the state during the first phase, which will provide relief to the tune of Rs2,700 crore.

On this occasion, CM Amarinder Singh also handed over farm loan waiver certificates to 10 farmers from Mansa, Bathinda, Faridkot, Muktsar and Moga districts, where nearly 47,000 farmers would benefit from the scheme.

Further acknowledging that some farmers might have been left out due to technical errors, the Chief Minister said issues were being resolved and complainants should approach their respective SDMs or DCs. He also noted that 10.25 lakh farmers were being covered under the scheme, which only left out the bigger farmers. According to data, Punjab has 17.5 lakh farming families.

The loan waiver process would be completed in four phases, CM Amarinder Singh said, adding his government would find ways to make it happen “despite not getting any help from the Centre”. However, during the launch, the CM slammed opposition parties and some kisan unions for spreading a “false propaganda” on the issues faced by farmers.

He also referred to reports in a section of the media about a suicide by a farmer in Barnala. The farmer reportedly killed himself on Friday night after allegedly finding that his name was missing from the first list of eligible farmers for farm loan waiver.

CM Amarinder also denied that any such suicide on account of non-inclusion of the farmer’s name in the list from Barnala, and suggested that it was a “false propaganda” allegedly being spread by the Akali Dal, the AAP and a few Kisan unions.

“The fiscal crisis being faced by the state was much graver than the Congress had envisaged before the elections,” CM said, adding that even then Punjab has announced a higher loan waiver than UP, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, MP and Karnataka.

Interestingly, farm loan waiver was one of the key promises of the Congress ahead of the February polls in the state. Then Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal had during the election campaign described Singh’s promise of waiving farmers’ debt if the Congress comes to power, as an election stunt.