Chandigarh: As per the media reports an expert panel lead by Dr T Haque that was formed by the Punjab government to prepare an assessment report on the quantum of farm loan to be waived will meet farmers’ bodies and bankers on June 15 to give final shape to its report.
It is said that the report will be submitted to the chief minister Amarinder Singh who will then take the final call on the farm loan debt.
Their is growing unrest among the state farmers as the Amarinder Singh lead congress government of Punjab has been consistently delaying the promised ‘complete waiver’ which it promised during the days preceding the state assembly election earlier this year.
“We want a complete loan waiver,” Balbir Singh Rajewal president of Bharatiya Kisan Union reportedly said.
“We will wait for the government’s announcement on debt waiver. But it should be a complete waiver, he adds.
He further said that the farmer bodies will put up a strong case before the Dr Haque, former chairman of the commission for agricultural costs and prices.
The panel is expected to give an interim report by June 17. On the basis of the report, finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal will make the budgetary provisions, to be announced in his budget speech on June 20, said the media reports.
In contrast to its ‘complete waiver’ promise mentioned by the congress party in its election manifesto the state government declared that only the needy farmers would get a waiver. “Well-to-do farmers will not get waiver, the entire task initiated by our government was to know who needs a waiver,” said a top functionary of the state, accepting that it’s a daunting task to pinpoint who’s needy.
Media reports indicate that the state government estimated a debt of ₹90,000 crore by March 31, 2016, on 10 lakh farmers in the state.
Whilst referring the statistics the government official while talking to Hindustan Times (HT) said 5.71 lakh farmers, who own up to 2.5 acres of land, owe an aggregate debt of ₹9,845 crore. Of these, only 35,000 farmers have a debt of ₹4,500 crore, which means each of them owes ₹13 lakh.
“A farmer who owns 2.5 acres couldn’t return ₹13 lakh with the income from the farm,” the official adds.
Furthermore, the official said that Of the total debt of ₹90,000 crore, 2-lakh farmers (20%) owe around 75% of debt amounting to around ₹63,000 crore,