lost somewhere in the Government files since past seven years, the Punjab Government has finally woke up to enactment of the much-needed Punjab Indebtedness Act to save the farmers and farm labourers from undue exploitation at the hands of money-lenders.
In a State where three farmers kill selves every two days owing to high debt burden, the State Government took more than seven years to constitute a Cabinet sub-committee for expeditiously paving away for the enactment of same.
After making efforts to formulate a law to check the exploitation of farmers by private money lenders and commission agents way back in 2006, during the Congress regime, the same Indebtedness Act was put in cold storage after the SAD-BJP formed the State Government in 2007.
The decision to expedite its formulation now was taken by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in a meeting with the delegation of Bharti Kisan Union led by its State president Ajmer Singh lakhowal at Punjab Bhawan on Monday.
In this regard, Badal has asked Financial Commissioner Revenue to put up a comprehensive proposal in the next Cabinet meeting for the composition of Cabinet Sub-Committee along with the draft bill for its consideration.
The development assumes significance as already a slew of systems are in place for enabling the farmers to raise loans, including the agriculture co-operative banks.
The need for bringing about the legislation has been felt as unorganised money-lending business was flourishing in the state where suicides by farmers are not uncommon. The study, conducted by the ludhiana’s Punjab Agriculture University (PAU), stated that the arhtiyas in the state had put Rs6427.27 corers in their pockets in the period of two decades from 1990.
Available information suggests that sometimes, the interest would, over a period of time, come out to be more than the principal amount resulting in undue hardships and harassment to the farmers.
Punjab Kisan Sangrash Committee’s state president Satnam Singh Pannu claimed that every farmer, on an average, owe more than Rstwo lakh, and the Government has no regulation on the money lending system.
National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), in its study, has maintained that Punjab farmers are amongst “most heavily” debt-burdened S tate in India, estimated to be more than Rs35,000 crore, “which has resulted in farmers’ suicide”.
PAU’s study too highlighted that about 500 farmers or farm labourers have committed suicide during past 10 years.
Only recently, the State government had issued directions trimming the role of arhtiyas (commission agents) by providing farmers an option of directly receiving payments for their produce after holding negotiations with the purchasers.
In an attempt to put an end to age-old “arhtiyas raj” in Punjab, the State Government had left it on the farmers either to sell their produce directly to the parties, including the Food Corporation of India, or approach the
purchasers through the arhtiyas.