Govt to display debt-ridden farmers’ names at villages for social audit

FARMERS SAYS IT WILL END UP BECOMING A NAMEANDSHAME EXERCISE; GOVT LIKELY TO START PROCESS FROM NEXT WEEK

SANGRUR: Debt-ridden farmers in Punjab, who want to avail of the benefit of the state government’s crop loan relief scheme, will be made to go through a social audit in which their names will be pasted at prominent places in their villages and the banks concerned.

On the other hand, the farmers are of the view that it will end up becoming a name-and-shame exercise. The Congress government is likely to start the process of waiving off crop loan of ₹2 lakh small and marginal farmers from next week. This was one of the party’s pre-poll promises.

A letter issued on Thursday by the joint secretary (department of agriculture and farmers welfare) to all deputy commissioners says that after the reports of cooperative banks and patwaris, a social audit will be conducted by pasting such lists at villages.

The final list will be displayed at villages by teams formed by the sub-divisional magistrates (SDMS), block agriculture officers and the assistant registrar (cooperative societies), the letter states. Sources said the department has developed a software to implement the scheme in which the cooperative banks and the revenue department have uploaded their data.

Officials said social audit is for the purpose of detecting discrepancies in loan amount, land records, if any, and whether the loanee is alive.

FARMERS TO PROTEST GOVERNMENT’S MOVE

Local farmer unions are up in arms against the government’s move to conduct a social audit. “The government wants to defame the debt-ridden farmer. If they (government) want to give relief to farmers, there is no need of a social audit because it will humiliate them. In fact, the Amarinder Singh government is escaping from its promises,” said Dilbag Singh, district vice-president, BKU (Ugrahan).