Loan waiver scheme not farmer-friendly, needs review BKU

Ferozepur, December 24, 2017:  Many farmers in the state have been left bewildered as the loan waiver scheme of the government is not farmer-friendly.

On the one hand, the SAD criticized the Congress government for arresting farmers after branding them as defaulters and on the other hand the loan waiver scheme – confined to only those farmers who own land up to 2.5 acres, has become a mockery for the farmers and around 400 farmers had committed suicides due to anti-farmers policies of the Amarinder Singh government.

The government should give a second thought to the loan waiver scheme so that the farmers may not commit suicides by the debt-ridden farmers, said Jagjit Singh Dhelewala, State President BKU Ekta Sidhpur.

Speaking to Babushahi.com, Dhelewala said, the Congress has formed the government by cheating with the farmers' community.  The poll promises in the manifesto has not been fulfilled.

Talking about the loan waiver, he said, the loan waiver scheme is half-baked as the conditions laid down for the waiver that the farmer should not hold any other land even on the lease, other than 2 acres, makes him ineligible.  He clarified that if a farmer is doing the extra work to take care of his family comfortable, should not make him eligible for the waiver of the loan over his own 2 acres land.

He further said, at the time of preparing the ‘Had Karja’ eligibility for the loan, the land taken on custom harvesting was also shown to get higher loan amount, as per the advice of the concerned officials, have now been rejected under the guidelines for waiver of the loan amount.

In both the conditions, the loan waiver scheme is not farmer friendly and needs to be reviewed keeping these aspects to extend the benefit to the debt-ridden farmer, to avoid the increasing suicide cases in the state.   

The various farmers' Unions have also urged the government to review the farmer’s loan waiver scheme.  They have termed it as cheating with the farmers and there is a great resentment among the farmer's community for the cruel and torturous methods against farmers to pressurize them to clear their bank loans.  In case, the waiving off complete scheme is not given a second thought, the farmers may resort to massive agitation with serious consequences.

According to the guidelines issued by the Punjab Government for waiving off the loan, out of around 10,016 farmers, only 7709 farmers were found eligible in Ferozepur while 2307 farmers were found ineligible under the scheme.  However, in this way, only Rs.47 crore will be waived off out of Rs.478 crore.

With the coming of Congress to power, the loan waiver was announced for Rs.2 lac of the farmer with land below 2.5 acres. In this way, the actual waiver is only around Rs.60,000.

The government has announced very cleverly the waiving off of the loan of farmers with 2.5 acres of land but the factual position is that the loan to the farmer by the Cooperative bank is not given more than Rs.1,10 lac.

According to the Deputy Commissioner, the cases of waiving off of loan of the farmers are strictly as per the guidelines of the scheme announced by the government.