Punjab farmers get Rs 1,771 crore loan relief

Chandigarh: The Punjab government on Friday gave debt relief against commercial bank loans to the tune of Rs 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 Rs 2 lakh had been given to all the marginal farmers and also to the small farmers who had availed loan up to Rs 2 lakh under the scheme. He said that a sum of Rs 1,815 crore of 3.18 lakh marginal farmers of Cooperative Banks had been waived off in the first phase, in addition to Rs 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.

Captain Amarinder Singh expressed concern about the problem of spurious seeds, agri-chemicals and other inputs that reach the farmers and said his government was maintaining a strict, 24X7 vigil to check sale of such products. He disclosed that a special campaign to ensure balanced use of fertilizers had led to reduction in Urea and DAP consumption by 1 lac MT and 46,000 tons respectively during Kharif-2018 as compared to the previous year. This, he said, resulted in net saving of about Rs. 200 crores.

Captain Amarinder Singh said that a campaign was launched to educate the farmers about judicious use of agro-chemicals on Basmati. The use of five pesticides, viz Acephate, Carbadazim, Triazophos, Thiamethoxam and Tricyclazole, had been discouraged during Kharif-2018. As a result, the quality of Basmati grain had started meeting international standards and resultantly, farmers were getting better prices of Basmati. This year, farmers are getting Rs. 3600-4000 per quintal as against Rs. 2600-3000 last year, he added.