No funds for loan waiver, but no penalty on stubble burning: CM

Tuesday, 17/10/2017

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Chandigarh : Punjab government is in no position to release funds to cooperative banks for debt waiver of farmers. But the state government has assured farmers that there will be no registration of cases or fines for stubble burning against them till the implementation of its alternate. According to various farmers’ organisations, who participated in a meeting with the Chief Minister, on Monday said that the CM has assured them to release funds, whenever the Centre will grant a loan to the Punjab government. According to farmers’ leaders, the meeting proved to be futile as the CM’s utterances were as usual that his government was committed to the welfare of farmers and would fulfil all promises made to the farmers.

The meeting with farmers’ organisations was pre-planned and formal letters were sent to farmers’ organisations three day ago. Those who were invited included Kisan Sangharsh Committee (formed with seven farmers’ organisations), Bharti Kisan Union (Lakhowal) and BKU Sidhupur and Kadia group. Meeting was fixed for 45 minutes for each group.

After the meeting with the CM, leaders of various farmers’ outfit said that the meeting was totally futile. Only fake assurances were given to them about the debt waiver. President of BKU (Ugrahan) Joginer Singh Ugrahan said that they will be holding core committee meetings for further action against the state government on October 27 in Moga. He said that nobody will be allowed to recover the loan amount from the farmers and the union will stand with the farmers. He also said that families of those farmers should be compensated fully, who have committed suicide due to debt. He said that the government wants to release the debt waiver fund into four instalments and that too later on. Ugrahan said that the meeting was nothing expect for befooling the farmers. He said that farmers have been left with no option but to launch a powerful agitation.

Govt to bring agriculture policy in next assembly session

Chandigarh: Punjab government on Monday announced a series of measures for the welfare of the farming community, including its decision to bring in a comprehensive agricultural policy for the state in the next session of the Vidhan Sabha.

In a meeting with various farmer unions, the Chief Minister directed settlement of claims of farmer suicide-affected families within a month, with instructions to all DCs to hold a meeting on the fifth of every month to resolve such cases. The government has also decided to reimburse complete expenses of the farmer activist, who was hospitalised during the recent farmer protest in Patiala, an official spokesperson disclosed after the meetings.

Responding to a demand for complete farm loan waiver, the unions were informed that the loan settlement policy approved by the previous government was being reviewed. The Chief Minister said given the financial constraints being faced by his government, it had not been possible to waive off all loans in one go and it had been decided to first settle the loans of the small and marginal farmers, who constituted a large majority of the state’s total farming community. Captain Amarinder pointed out that loan up to Rs 2 lakh had been waived off for marginal farmers with less than 2.5 acres of land while small farmers with land from 2.5 to 5 acres would also get waiver up to Rs 2 lakh.

On the issue of jobs for the kin of farmers who had committed suicide, Captain Amarinder said those who had not already been provided employment will be inducted under the ‘Ghar Ghar Naukri’ programme.

The unions also raised the issue of penalties and FIRs against farmers over non-payment of electricity bills. While the Power Secretary pointed out that the penalties were being charged only in accordance with the provisions of the regulatory authority, the Chief Minister directed the department to issue instructions so that the aggrieved farmers could meet the SDM or the DC directly, without requiring a lawyer’s intervention.