CHANDIGARH, Sept 23: Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Saturday urged leaders of the farming community in the state to stop misleading the farmers with false statements on the issue of loan waiver, the process for which has already been initiated by his government in right earnest.
In a statement issued a day after various kisan unions began a protest dharna on the outskirts of Patiala, alleging that the Government’s waiver scheme would benefit only a small number of farmers, the Chief Minister said baseless charges were being made against his Government by politically motivated farmer leaders.
The waiver scheme announced by his Government, and set to be notified soon following the Cabinet approval, will benefit 10.25 lakh of the 13 lakh farming families who borrowed loans, said the Chief Minister, pointing out that this constituted nearly 80 per cent of the borrowers in the farming community, which has a total of 17 lakh plus families.
Contrary to what the farmer leaders, clearly instigated by some of the political parties in the opposition, are trying to project, the fact is that his government’s loan waiver scheme would positively impact the majority of the small and marginal farmers, leaving out only the big farmers, who would be covered in the next phase, Capt Singh said.
He said the loan waiver amount announced by his Government was also way above that announced by other states, including Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Karnataka, despite the fact that Punjab was definitely in a much worse financial condition.
Unlike other states, Punjab’s scheme would help waive off loans up to Rs two lakh for farmers with up to five acres of land and an outright relief of Rs two lakh each to other small and marginal farmers, irrespective of their loan amount, the Chief Minister pointed out. States like Rajasthan and Karnataka have announced a mere Rs 50,000 loan waiver for farmers.
“What is more, the Punjab government has also decided to take over the interest of the affected farmers with retrospective effect, from the date of announcement of the waiver scheme in the state Assembly, till the date of notification,” the Chief Minister said. (UNI)
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