Setting November 15 as a deadline, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Friday ordered the release of pending tubewell connections to the farmers who had already made payments
The directive came during a meeting with representatives of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharash Committee.
The Chief Minister has also directed the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) chairman-cum-managing director Baldev Singh Sran to ensure adherence to November 15 deadline and issue necessary directions to the field staff across the state for strict compliance.
Sran assured the Chief Minister that nearly 7,000 pending tubewell connections would be released within the stipulated time-frame.
Responding to another demand of the committee, the Chief Minister asked the Additional Chief Secretary (Agriculture) Viswajit Khanna to ensure that the farmers get subsidized agri-implements or equipment before October 15 for in-situ management of paddy stubble in order to avoid burning.
Khanna informed the Chief Minister that of the total 24,000 agri-implements or equipment, nearly 8000 had been distributed amongst the farmers, cooperative societies and custom hiring centres so far in the state.
He said that the Agriculture Department was fully geared up to complete the task of distribution of these implements.
At the same time, the Chief Minister appealed to the farmers to make use of subsidized agri-machinery effectively to avoid stubble burning, thereby ensuring health and hygiene of the people besides preserving the environment of the state.
The meeting was informed that the Punjab Settlement of Agricultural Indebtedness (Amendment) Bill, 2018, was passed in the recently concluded Punjab Vidhan Sabha session, according to which the Government would notify maximum amount of debt that can be advanced by creditors to the debtors on per acre basis.
The Government has already notified five Divisional Debt Settlement Forums headed by the Divisional Commissioner as per the provisions of the Act.
Directions were also issued to the Financial Commissioner (Revenue) MP Singh to ensure regular meetings of Deputy Commissioner, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) and Chief Agriculture Officer (CAO) at the district level to review farm suicide cases on the 15th of every month, as already mandated by the Revenue Department.
The reports, thus, received from the Deputy Commissioners of respective districts would be considered for timely release of compensation by the state committee comprising FCR, ACS agriculture and Principal Secretary Finance.
Acceding to another demand, Capt Amarinder asked the Principal Secretary (Power) A Venu Prasad to examine the feasibility of sending power bills to consumers on a monthly basis instead of the existing time-frame of two months, especially in the rural areas.
On the issue of new agriculture policy, the Chief Minister said that the State Government was all set to unveil its pro-farmer agriculture policy.