To encourage the state farmers in better management of stubble instead of burning the same, the Punjab Government has taken a landmark decision of increasing the maximum credit limit (MCL) of the kind component (B-Component) of the crop loans advanced to the farmers by Rs 3000 per acre.
Announcing this, the state Cooperation Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa on Thursday said that the State Government is exhorting the farmers to go in for disposing off the stubble in the fields itself instead of burning it.
In this regard, the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh had placed a demand before the Union Government that the farmers be provided with the financial assistance in lieu of their not burning stubble, but till today, no help has been received, said Randhawa.
Randhawa said that the Cooperation Department’s decision to increase the MCL considering the ever increasing expenditure of the farmers would benefit about 7.50 lakh farmers. “Out of the increased Rs 3000 amount, the farmers can use Rs 2000 for the management of the stubble and the rest Rs 1000 for diesel,” he said.
The Minister said that earlier, the farmers got Rs 9,000 per acre as MCL for the crop loans out of which the amount of Rs 2,500 were usable for diesel needs. Now, the farmer can use Rs 3,500 for meeting the diesel expenditure out of the Rs 12,000 per acre MCL, he said.
The Minister added that he had given the orders for increasing the MCL to the Registrar, Cooperative Societies Vikas Garg after meeting the representatives of the farmers unions’ and the Primary Cooperative Agricultural Societies. The Registrar then held a meeting of the technical committee and decided to increase the MCL.