Hundreds of farmers and AAP activists on Sunday protested at the grain market in Mansa town as the Punjab Government began a farm debt waiver scheme in the State.
The farmers, who held the protest under the banner of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), termed the scheme as a non-starter.
They alleged that the Congress, which had promised complete debt waiver for farmers, had gone back on its promise to waive off the debt of cooperative and commercial banks, money-lenders and financial institutions.
“The loan waiver announced by the State Government is all fake. It is peanuts compared the the mammoth debt of farmers. We will not accept this waiver,” said BKU farmer Kirpal Singh said. The Punjab Police and district authorities did not allow the protesting farmers to reach the venue of the loan waiver event.
leader of Opposition Sukhpal Singh Khaira and Aam Aadmi Party co-president for Punjab Aman Arora started a sit-in protest in Mansa town.
“This exercise of loan waiver is a complete sham. The farmers of Punjab have been cheated in the name of waiving off their debt. We have cheques of Rs 7, 10, 12 and a few hundred rupees being issued to farmers. Is this the loan waiver that the Congress promisedIJ” Khaira asked.
The symbolic launch event at Mansa witnessed disbursement of debt relief certificates to the tune of Rs 167.39 crore to nearly 47,000 eligible marginal and small farmers, who had taken loans from 701 primary agriculture cooperative societies of Mansa, Bathinda, Faridkot, Muktsar and Moga districts.