Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder on Friday ordered the release of farmers taken into preventive detention by the police ahead of the farmer organisations’ protest in Patiala.
At the same time, Capt Amarinder also constituted a three-member committee, headed by senior party leader and Punjab Mandi Board chairman lal Singh, to hear farmers’ grievances and also apprise them of the steps taken by his government on crop loan waiver.
The state Director General of Police (DGP) and the district authorities have been asked to release the farmers, who were “resorting to agitation out of sheer desperation and did not really mean to create any law and order problem”, said Capt Amarinder in a statement.
Of the total 377 farmers, 34 have already been released while 308 are in judicial custody and 35 in police custody.
Appealing to the farmers to be patient, he said that he had inherited a government with empty coffers but despite that, steps to waive crop loans of the farmers had been initiated and a notification, the draft of which was cleared by the cabinet two days ago, will be issued soon.
The Chief Minister said he was committed to fulfilling each and every promise made in the party’s election manifesto, which had been adopted as a policy paper for his government.
Spokesperson said that other members of the committee are Congress MlA Ramanjit Singh Sikki (Khadoor Sahib) and Gurpreet Singh Kangar (Rampura Phul).
Punjab Cabinet had on Wednesday approved the draft notification for crop loan waiver scheme announced by Chief Minister in the state assembly in June this year.
Besides taking over the entire eligible loan amount of the farmers covered under the debt waiver scheme, the government has decided to also take over the outstanding interest of farmers from April 1, 2017 till the date of notification, which will lead to an additional Rs 400 crore benefit to the farmers.
Patiala on high alert as farmers start protest
Patiala was on high alert on Friday as the seven farmers’ outfits started a five-day long dharna in support of their demands including debt waiver and implementation of Swaminathan Commission report.
Farmers outfits were allotted a place on the outskirts of Patiala city, about nine kilometers from the Moti Bagh palace - the private residence of Chief Minister, to stage a protest in support of their demands.
In the wake of the farmers’ protest, security was beefed up in and around Patiala district to maintain law and order.
Various farmers’ outfits including BKU (Ugrahan), BKU (Dakonda), BKU Krantikari (Phool Group), BKU Krantikari (Shinder Group), Kirti Kisan Union, Kisan Sangharsh Committee (Pannu Group) and Ajad Sangharsh Committee are participating in the dharna.