‘THOSE COVERED IN 1ST PHASE OF WAIVER NEED NOT REPAY LOAN’

CHANDIGARH : Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday said the farmers covered in the first phase of the loan waiver as announced in the state assembly need not repay their loans. He said a notification to implement the waiver would be issued shortly.

The CM in June had announced to waive off loans up to ₹2 lakh for farmers owning up to 5-acre land and payment of ₹2 lakh to other small and marginal farmers, covering about 10.5 lakh farmers.

Rejecting the opposition parties’ claims that farmer suicide cases in the state had doubled since his government announced the farm loan waiver, Amarinder said from March to September, farmer suicide figures came down when compared with the corresponding period in 2016.

“When compared to 153 cases from March to September 2016, the figure came down to 131 during the same period this year,” he said, refuting claims of the leader of opposition Sukhpal Singh Khaira that 250 farmers ended their lives in the past six months. He said his government did not want to engage with the Aam Aadmi Party or the Akali Dal in a number game on such a critical issue.

He said 997 farmer suicides were reported from March 2007 to March 2017, when SAD-BJP were in power. Of these, 155 took place between January and December 2015 and 225 in 2016. “The total compensation in 2014 stood at ₹148 lakh, ₹389 lakh in 2015 and ₹429 lakh in 2016. In 2017, the erstwhile government paid ₹27 lakh till it was in power. My government hiked compensation from ₹3 lakh to ₹5 lakh and announced ₹311 lakh compensation in 114 cases of farmer suicides in April, June and August this year.”