₹2,000 crore allocated for debt waiver to farmers
₹10 CR ANNOUNCED FOR SETTING UP OF AGRI MARKETING INNOVATION RESEARCH CENTRE AT MOHALI, ₹200 CR FOR CROP DIVERSIFICATION
CHANDIGARH: In the annual budget announced on Friday by Punjab finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal, a major portion of funds allocated for the agriculture and allied sector have been reserved for debt waiver to farmers and farm labourers.
A sum of ₹2,000 crore has been sanctioned to waive loans of at least 1.27 lakh small and marginal farmers, who are yet to get the benefit of the government’s debtwaiver scheme. Farm debt waiver was one of the key promises of the Congress before the 2017 assembly elections.
Funds sanctioned in the budget for debt waiver also includes ₹520 crore for 2.85 lakh landless farmers who have been identified by the government and were awaiting disbursal. They will get a waiver of up to ₹25,000 they owe to village-level agricultural cooperative societies. In past two years, the state government has waived debt of ₹4,650 crore of 5.63 lakh small and marginal farmers.
The budget also focuses on diversification, though the fund outlay is meagre ₹200 crore. The finance minister also announced indirect support to the agricultural sector by giving funds for extension services.
Manpreet announced ₹14 crore to open two agricultural colleges in Balachaur and Gurdaspur, ₹10 crore for agricultural marketing innovation research and intelligence centre at Mohali to be run by the Punjab Agricultural University, ₹50 crore for the upgrade of Gurdaspur and Batala sugar mills with an estimated cost of ₹100 crore and ₹10 crore for a veterinary college and regional research centre in Fazilka, which would be a constituent of Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University.
On the demand of Congress MLA Rana Gurjeet Singh, the finance minister said he has decided to install 11,371 solar pumps. He said 12,000 more solar pumps will be installed in the next three years and later complete solarisation of 11 KV Nathu Chahal feeder would follow at a cost of ₹11 crore.
Manpreet said the government has also decided to reduce the mandi fee from 4% to 1%.
On the central sector funds, the finance minister said ₹141 crore has been sanctioned for Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana and ₹200 crore under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana.
On ₹100 per quintal bonus to farmers who have not resorted to burning paddy straw, the finance minister said the government will approach the Centre to make the incentive part of the minimum support price (MSP).
₹40 crore was announced for farmers who are willing to save on power and water consumption and have accepted to get meters fixed on their tubewells. “So far, we have 221 farmers of six feeders connected for ‘Panni bachao Paise kamao scheme’ and in the coming year 2020-21 the scheme would be expanded to 244 feeders, for which ₹40 crore has been kept aside. We are transferring ₹40,000 into accounts of each farmer in advance,” said Manpreet.