PunjabChief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has announced waiver of Rs. 590 croreworth of loans under the farm debt waiver scheme for labourers and the landlessfarming community, paving the way for the fulfilment of another key promise ofhis government.
Thecheques would be issued at a state-level function on August 20, said anofficial spokesperson after a high-level meeting held on Tuesday.
ThePunjab Government will pay off loans to the tune of Rs. 520 crore of 2,85,325members of the Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies (PACS), thus ensuringa relief of Rs. 20,000 per member, said the Chief Minister. He directed theFinance and Cooperation departments to kick off the process for effectiveimplementation of the decision on the ground.
ThePunjab Government has formulated a Debt Relief Scheme for Farm Labourers andLandless Farming Members of PACS-2019, which will cover only Consumption Loanto the members of the Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies advanced byDistrict Central Cooperative Banks in the state of Punjab through PrimaryAgricultural Cooperative Societies.
TheChief Minister’s announcements follow the waiver of the loans of farmers underthe Chief Minister’s flagship ‘Debt Waiver Scheme.’ So far, loans worth Rs.4624 crore have been waived of as many as 5.64 lakh farmers under the scheme,which was announced as part of the 2017 poll promises by the Punjab Congress.
Inaddition, loans of the SC and BC categories have been written off up to theamount of Rs. 50,000 each, including waiver upto Rs. 58.39 crore of 6405beneficiaries by the SC Corporation and Rs. 20.71 crore of 1225 beneficiariesby the BC Corporation.
Amongothers present at the meeting were Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal,Cooperation Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Additional Chief Secretary(Agriculture) Anirudh Tewari and Financial Cooperation K. Siva Prasad.