Chandigarh: A fresh demand for farm loan waiver in the country’s top agrarian state of Punjab is turning into a political storm with chief minister Amarinder Singh of the Congress saying that his cash-strapped government is in no position to offer any immediate good news to debt-ridden peasants.
Citing the precarious financial situation of the state government and the burden due to the past loan waivers, the chief minister has urged the Union government to consider a nationwide scheme for farm loan waiver.
The Opposition Akali Dal and farmer unions have started turning on the heat on the Congress government, accusing Mr Singh of taking a U-turn on the loan waiver issue after promising do help farmers during his Assembly election campaign.
With farmers considering an agitation, Mr Singh has appealed to them not to precipitate the matter.
He promised to resolve all their woes at the earliest but said that his government could not afford to waive off any more farm loans.
The Opposition Akali Dal has accused the Congress government of running away from the poll promise of helping farmers.
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal said that the chief minister has lost the moral right to continue in office as he has refused to extend the debt waiver, given to crop loanees, to all farmers as committed by him before the elections and in the Assembly.
“You promised to waive off all the debt totalling around Rs 90,000 crore including that taken from cooperative and nationalised banks as well as private money lenders. You reiterated this promise in the Vidhan Sabha. However, you have gone back on your commitment by stating that you will not extend the crop loan scheme to cover all farmers”.
The chief minister said that despite the severe financial crunch faced by the state government, Punjab has waived off Rs 2 lakh farm loan per peasant, which is higher than any the other states.
The chief minister, urging the protesting farmers to appreciate the government’s efforts, said that the per peasant farm loan waiver in Maharashtra has been Rs 1.5 lakh, UP Rs 1 lakh, Rajasthan Rs 50,000, MP Rs 1 lakh and Karnataka Rs 50,000.
The chief minister appealed to farmers not to be misled by the Opposition parties. He said that considering the financial problems that his government had inherited from the previous Akali Dal regime, it is not possible to extend the debt waiver scheme to more farmers or to waive off more than Rs 2 lakh, said the chief minister.
