Making it clear that the State Government would continue to provide free power to the farmers, Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal on Wednesday said that they would have been in “debt trap” had they not been provided subsidy. Badal, however, noted that the Government was being criticised for extending free power to farmers.
“Had the free power not been given, the peasantry in the State would have been in debt trap worth Rs 60,000 crore,” he said while addressing a session on the concluding day of agriculture summit. The State has been supplying free power over Rs 5,500 crore to farmers. The farm experts and scientists, during the summit, had maintained that the need of the hour is the quality inputs rather than subsidies.