Captain Amarinder Singh, Punjab CM, has announced that his government is going to provide relief of ₹209 crore to 38,000 marginal farmers within the next 10 days. The farmers are members of cooperative societies, and disbursement to them will mark the completion of the first phase of Singh’s government’s debt relief scheme.
Satisfied with the progress of the scheme, the Chief Minister explained that 2,77,633 marginal farmers have been provided relief with a lump sum of ₹1,525.61 crore so far in the first phase and this amount has been transferred directly into their accounts.
Singh told the Press that out of 3.43 lakh marginal farmers in the cooperative societies, apparently 27,179 were found ineligible for this disbursement as they were either serving as government or semi-government employees or did not match the eligibility criteria of the scheme. Another 19,706 farmers did not submit the self-declaration forms deemed mandatory.
“The remaining 38,000 (farmers) will be provided debt relief within the next 10 days,” he said, adding that if any eligible farmer had been left out, they could approach the Sub-Divisional Magistrate of their respective area; the Magistrate has been mandated to resolve the issue after due consideration with the committee headed by them.
The Punjab CM said: “In the second phase, the small farmers linked with cooperative societies would be taken up for disbursement of relief. The commercial banks have already started uploading the data of the farmers who had taken loans on the specially designed portal for the purpose.”
Singh also directed the Agriculture and Finance Departments to follow up with the commercial banks in the state to ensure swift uploading of the data so that the verification process and disbursement of the ₹209 crore relief to eligible farmers could be done at the earliest, and in a very transparent manner.
Additionally, the marginal farmers of the cooperative societies who have not yet received the amount (disbursable up to ₹2 lakhs) and are eligible to receive relief to pay off loans secured from the commercial banks will also be covered.
Reiterating his government’s commitment to bailing out farmers suffering from debt burden, Capt. Amarinder Singh said that the promise made to the farmers would be fulfilled at all costs.
