In an attempt to cultivate the farmers amidst growing gloom brought about by the Centre’s ‘contentious’ farm laws, Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal on Monday proposed a 25 per cent hike in budgetary allocations for agriculture sector at Rs 6,827 crore, including farm loans waiver, power subsidy, among others.
Dedicating the 2021-22 Punjab budget to the farmers and farm labourers, who have been fighting at Delhi borders for more than 100 days now, Manpreet announced that in the current financial year, the Government to would waive Rs 1,186 crore of 1.13 lakh farmers and Rs 526 crore of landless farmers in the next phase of its much-touted farm debt waiver scheme.
Besides, Manpreet announced allocation of Rs 7,180 crore for free power subsidy for the farmers, and launching of a new umbrella programme — Kamyaab Kisan Khushaal Punjab (K3P).
Agri schemes to mitigate the risk of horticulture farmers, and Rs 200 crore for crop diversification has also been announced. An Agricultural Marketing Innovation Research and Intelligence Centre has also been announced for Mohali.
“Under the Government’s flagship ‘Crop Loan Waiver Scheme’, a debt relief to 5.83 lakh small and marginal farmers, having loan up to Rs 2 lakh, has been provided. A debt amounting to Rs 4,624 crore has already been waived off under the scheme. Out of these, debt relief to 3.19 lakh marginal farmers and 1.26 lakh small farmers, amounting to Rs 2707.12 crore, has been given to members of the Cooperative Banks,” he said.
For the current fiscal, he announced that the Government will waive off Rs 1,186 crore loans of 1.13 lakh farmers and Rs 526 crore of landless farm workers in the next phase during 2021-22, “for which necessary allocation of Rs 1,712 crore has been proposed”.
Making an allocation of Rs 7,180 crore for free power to farmers in 2021-22, he said that the Government has provided free power to 14.23 lakh farmers in the past four years amounting to Rs 23,851 crore and “resolves to continue” the same.
To strengthen the State’s agricultural sector in all its dimensions, Manpreet announced a new umbrella program ‘Kamyaab Kisan Khushaal Punjab’ during 2021-22, with an outlay of Rs 3,780 crore to be implemented during the next three years.
“To kickstart this programme, Rs 1,104 crore has been earmarked for 2021-22,” he said, adding the programme is aimed at improving the income of those dependent on agriculture on a sustainable basis while preserving the ecological balance for future generations.
Under the new scheme, a Centre of Excellence for vegetables will be set up at Fazilka at a cost of Rs 10 crore; a post-graduate institute of horticulture research to be set up at Amritsar; 25 Horticulture Estates in the State with at least one in each district in the next five years; mobile vending carts to be provided to farmers “for self-marketing of their horticulture produce”; among others.
To mitigate the risk of horticulture farmers, two new schemes has also been announced for fixing a base price for horticulture crops and payment of deficiency price as compensation.
In addition, Agriculture Development Bureaus will also be set up at each district headquarter to provide all information to the farmers under one roof. “Initially, it is proposed to set up such Bureaus in three districts on a pilot basis and thereafter, the programme would be upscaled in the whole state,” he said.
An Agricultural Marketing Innovation Research and Intelligence Centre (AMIRIC) will also be established at Kalkal Bhawan, Mohali (SAS Nagar), to assist the farmers in fetching better return for agriculture produce through marketing intelligence reports. For this, an amount of Rs 8 crore has been given as a one-time corpus grant.
Rs 200 crore has been set aside for crop diversification, announced Badal, adding that there will be a special emphasis on horticulture as Rs 361 crore has been allocated for it in 2021-22.
For subsidised electricity, the Government has earmarked Rs 1,928 crore during 2021-22. “Punjab Sugarcane Research Development Institute to come up in Kalanaur, Gurdaspur; and Batala sugar mills will be upgraded. Rs 300 crore is to be set aside for buying sugarcane,” he said.
Saluting the farmers’ “inspirational struggle that is already on its way to acquiring a legendary status”, Manpreet lashed out at the Central Government for its “audacity and rigidity” to pass the three farm laws, besides being arrogant.
“The twin practices of divisiveness and arrogance stand in sharp contrast to the humility of the Indian farmer…For six months now, the entire world has been shocked by the audacity and rigidity of the Union Government in passing the three farm bills. Farmers protested in Punjab, but the Union Government did not listen. They moved to Delhi, but the Union Government still did not listen. Today, the entire world is echoing the voice of the Indian farmer,” he said.