MLAs TO HAVE SAY IN FARM DEBT WAIVER
Small and marginal farmers told to submit selfdeclaration; MLAs to act as ‘facilitators’ to authenticate claim
As per changes proposed by the agriculture department to counter hitches in crop-loan waiver by the Punjab government, farmers will now provide a self-declaration that they are either marginal (owning up to 2.5 acres) or small (up to 5 acres). And MLAs, at least of the ruling party Congress, will ensure the declaration is authentic, though that’s not written in the policy. “MLAs will ensure that all eligible farmers are covered,” confirmed state Congress chief and Gurdaspur MP Sunil Jakhar.
As per changes proposed by the agriculture department to counter hitches in croploan waiver by the Punjab government, farmers will now provide a self-declaration that they are either marginal (owning up to 2.5 acres) or small (up to 5 acres). And MLAs, at least of the ruling party Congress, will ensure the declaration is authentic, though that’s not written in the policy.
“MLAs will ensure that all eligible farmers are covered,” confirmed state Congress chief and Gurdaspur MP Sunil Jakhar, explaining, “They will work as facilitators, tour villages and collect the self-declaration forms, and also give feedback to the government. But we will not let anyone extract anything from the hapless farmers.” Justifying the move, he further said, “The (debt waiver) delivery should be done as per revenue and bank record; but discrepancies cropped up, which needed human interface.”
On whether or not only the Congress MLAs (77 of 117 members of the Vidhan Sabha) will be part of the exercise, Jakhar said, “MLAs of Shiromani Akali Dal, Bharatiya Janata Party and Aam Aadmi Party can also come forward to facilitate the exercise, if they accept that it’s a good step on the part of the state government.”
Also, in the new policy, income tax payee farmers, and employees and pensioners of government and semi-government bodies, will be ineligible.
Soon after coming to power last year, chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh had in June announced in the assembly that debt waiver for small and marginal farmers will cover 10.5 lakh beneficiaries at Rs 9,500 crore. Changes proposed in the policy will drastically cut the list.
Formally, the CM rolled out the waiver from Mansa to nearly 47,000 farmers from Malwa region’s five districts (Mansa, Bathinda, Faridkot, Moga and Muktsar) that recorded a high incidence of farmer suicides, giving away Rs 170 crore to different cooperative societies registered with the Punjab Agriculture Development Bank (PADB) from where these farmers had taken loans. Officials in the agriculture department say they are now
ready with delivery to 1.5 lakh more farmers and the government has made arrangement of Rs 750 crore for it.
In the wake of reports that some eligible farmers were left out, the CM accepted shortcomings. MLAs also approached the
CM that in such a huge rollout, their role was negligible. It was decided at the party level to make MLAs play a role in authenticating the self-declarations, it is learnt. Officials, who did not want to be named, said MLAs will give clearance to the individual cases.
MLAs will ensure all eligible are covered. They will act as facilitators, tour villages and collect selfdeclaration forms. MLAs of SAD, BJP and AAP can come forward too... if they accept it’s a good step. SUNIL JAKHAR, state Congress president