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, saying its process has already been initiated by his Government in right earnest.
In a statement issued here, 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% 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 Amarinder said.
The CM claimed that 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 the other States, Punjab’s scheme would help waive off loans up to `2 lakh for farmers with up to 5 acres of land and an outright relief of `2 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 `50,000 loan waiver for farmers," the statement added.
It was only a matter of weeks now for the implementation process to begin, said Capt Amarinder, appealing to the farmers not to resort to extreme measures, such as suicide, out of desperation. The newly constituted lal Singh-led committee has also commenced the task of taking cognizance of the farmers’ grievances and will address the same on urgent basis, he further assured.