Clearing all doubts in the mind of Punjab’s farming community over Congress Government’s debt waiver announcement, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Thursday made it amply clear that the farmers whose loans had been waived off stood “immediately exempted” from repayment of their debts.

Capt Singh, meeting various farmers’ organisations from across Punjab on Thursday, also assured early notification to implement the Government’s decision of waiving off farm loan. 

Chief Minister also assured that his Government would continue to pressurise the Centre for implementation of the recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission, on which all the kisan unions had expressed total consensus as the only real long-term solution to the problems of the farming community.

The meeting was informed that the process of loan waiver, as announced in the budget, would start within two months.

With all the organisations urging the State Government to push the Central Government into implementation of the Swaminathan Commission report without further delay, the Chief Minister assured them that this was high on his agenda and he would do everything in his power to alleviate the sufferings of the farmers.

Capt Singh, who assured farmers’ organisations that his Government would engage with them in continuous dialogue to resolve the crises facing farming community, said that his Government was committed to waiving off the loans of the farmers, even though the State’s debt burden had turned out to be much higher than anticipated. 

“The Government would fulfil each of the 49-point agenda for farmers in the poll manifesto to make agriculture profitable,” he declared. 

He informed the farmers that a cabinet sub-committee had already been formed to speak to the arhtiyas (commission agents) to resolve the issue of non-institutional loans.

Chief Minister once again reiterated Punjab’s inability to share river water with other States, pointing out that if SYl comes up, a whopping 10,000 acres of southern part of the State would go dry. 

He advocated continuous dialogue to resolve the festering issue saying that Punjab’s water would not be allowed to be diverted to other States and a committee under the Finance Minister was working continuously to solve the problem. 

Besides waiver of loans, other issues discussed by the kisan unions who participated in the meeting included fixation of price of crops on recommendations of Dr Swaminathan Commission report (MSP should be at least 50 percent more than the weighted average cost of production), as well as compensation of Rs 10 lakhs to farmers who committed suicide due to debt, job to one dependent member of family, besides their debt waiver which the Government has already announced. 

Ownership rights to cultivators who have been cultivating panchyati or shamlat land since long, proper arrangements for stray animals as they cause damage to crops and a stop to acquisition of land without the consent of farmers were among the other key demands of the farmers’ organisations. Chief Minister heard these sympathetically and assured of all possible steps to address the same. 

There was a suggestion that the Vidhan Sabha should pass a resolution for implementation of the Swaminathan Commission report, and also for declaring Punjab a special agricultural zone.

While BKU (lakhowal) called for lowering of prices of pesticides and insecticides, the Pagri Sabhal Jatta lehar spoke of fixing of sugarcane price at a minimum of Rs 375 per quintal as well as other issues related to sugarcane production.  

The organisations demanded timely clearance of sugarcane arrears besides declaring Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur as sugarcane zone, as it was a major catchment area for the supply of sugarcane to the nearby mills. To safeguard the farmers’ interests as a result of distressed selling of crops for want of adequate marketing support, these associations demanded bringing crops of potatoes, maize and basmati within the MSP regime for ensuring remunerative prices of their produce.

BKU (Sidhupur) wanted direct payment to the farmers rather than through procurement agencies and change in transformers as per load. BKU (Mann) demanded grant of pensions to farmers above the age of 60. The union representatives hailed the meeting as a vital step to resolve agriculture related issues in the State. The issue of grant of excess loans by banks was also raised and the Government requested to ensure that this practice is stopped. There was a consensus on crop diversification as a means of increasing incomes of beleaguered farming community, which is currently caught in the non-remunerative paddy-wheat cycle.

A suggestion to open up the Attari border for export of vegetables was also discussed during the meeting, which was the first of its kind, with virtually all the State’s farmers’ organisations participating in it. 

PPCC president Sunil Jakhar urged the State Government to take up the issue of exclusion of agriculture from GST with the Centre.

He also proposed the creation of an MSP Fund from the money saved by the Centre from lowering of fuel import cost. Jakhar suggested norms to regulate lending by private agents and lenders, who charge arbitrary interest rates. 

Finance Minister Manpreet Badal and Rural Development and Panchayat Minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Punjab Mandi Board chairman lal Singh, Chief Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Suresh Kumar, Chief Secretary Karan Avtar Singh, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Tejveer Singh, among others were also present in the meeting.