Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Monday asked the Congress-led Punjab Government to stop befooling farmers in the name of debt waiver and implement comprehensive Rs 90,000 crore farm loan waiver as promised by the Congress prior to 2017 assembly elections.
“The phony debt waiver scheme launched by the Congress Government one year back has done more harm than good. Instead of helping farmers, the scheme had resulted in an increase in farm suicides and is causing misery to farmers,” said the former minister and SAD Kisan Cell president Sikander Singh Maluka.
He said that independent surveys had revealed that farmers had only received a minuscule amount in the name of debt waiver.
“At the same time, the farmers are now being forced to pay more to private money lenders who have increased interest rates on loans,” he said.
“Bank loans have also been closed to farmers because most stopped paying interest on bank loans taken by them when the Congress announced it would implement a comprehensive Rs 90,000 crore debt waiver covering both nationalised and cooperative banks as well as private money lenders. Due to this, farmers are in worst possible state as banks have started recovery (kurki) from them forcibly, something which had never happened earlier,” he said.