Punjab farmers get 1,771cr loan relief

The Punjab government on Friday gave debt relief against commercial bank loans to the tune of ` 1,771 crore for 1,09,730 eligible marginal farmers of four districts, and announced the extension of the waiver scheme to farmers with land holding of 2.5 to 5 acres.

The amount is being transferred directly to the accounts of the marginal farmers of commercial banks and the process will be completed by tomorrow, chief minister Amarinder Singh said at a function, where he symbolically handed over debt relief certificates to 25 farmers. The farmers covered in this phase belong to Patiala, Ludhiana, Sangrur and Fatehgarh Sahib districts.

Addressing the function, Mr Singh said that in the next phase, farmers having land holding of 2.5 to 5 acres would get debt waiver towards both cooperative and commercial banks. Captain Amarinder Singh also reiterated his commitment to waive off the loans of the landless labourers in the subsequent phases of the implementation of the waiver scheme.

The chief minister said waiver up to ` 2 lakh had been given to all the marginal farmers and also to the small farmers who had availed loan up to ` 2 lakh under the scheme. He said that a sum of ` 1,815 crore of 3.18 lakh marginal farmers of Cooperative Banks had been waived off in the first phase, in addition to ` 1,771 crore of 1.09 lakh marginal farmers of Commercial Banks in Friday’s state- level debt relief function.

Underlining the need to export sugar and potatoes to Central Asian countries, the CM said that he had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to include these items in the export list. If the Government of India allows Punjab to export these products, sugarcane and potato farmers be immensely benefited, he added.