Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has lambasted the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and certain farmers’ unions for allegedly spreading false propaganda on the farm debt waiver promise, which his government has started implementing from five districts of the state on Sunday.

Addressing a gathering at the launch of Congress government’s key poll promise of Farm Debt Waiver Scheme at Mansa, Amarinder Singh referred to Saturday’s reported suicide of a Barnala farmer to point to the extent of “mis-propaganda” which the opposition parties and some of the unions had unleashed.

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Amarinder categorically denied any such suicide on account of non-inclusion of the farmer’s name in the waiver list. The farmer’s name was included in the list from Barnala, he said, adding that it was obvious that a fraudulent campaign had been launched by vested interests.

The Chief Minister questioned the Akalis, AAP and some farmer’s unions, which he said were behind the propaganda campaign, on how they expected his government to give out more than it could afford to.

He said, “The fiscal crisis facing the state was much graver than the Congress had envisaged before the elections. Despite the problems, my government has found ways of launching the debt waiver scheme, as promised in the poll manifesto of the Congress.”

Amarinder Singh also cited figures to point out that not only had his government announced higher loan waiver than other states including UP, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, MP and Karnataka, but had, in fact, done so despite the huge financial constraints faced by it.

Our government had fulfilled another major promise with this launch, said the chief minister, as he symbolically handed over waiver certificates to 10 farmers from the five districts of Mansa, Bathinda, Faridkot, Muktsar and Moga.

Nearly 47,000 farmers who had taken loans from 701 Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies of the five districts were getting their money in their bank accounts, he said, describing the launch as a beginning towards solving the problems that were causing farmers to commit suicide.

As per the official information, a total of 5.63 lakh farmers will be benefitted during the first phase, which would provide relief to the tune of Rs 2700 Crore.

Acknowledging that some farmers could and might have got left out due to technical errors, Amarinder said these issues were being resolved and those who still ended up with complaints should approach their respective SDMs or DCs, whom he had personally directed to resolve any such issues at the earliest.

No eligible farmer will be excluded from the waiver exercise, he assured the people, adding that he was personally keeping tabs on the disbursements.

Amarinder Singh said the entire loan waiver process would be completed in four phases and his government would find ways and means of making it happen, “despite not getting any help from the Centre”.

On the occasion, Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar said former CM Parkash Singh Badal was resorting to “dirty politics over the debt waiver issue”.
The Akalis and others, who were allegedly politicizing the debt waiver issue and misleading the farmers, were doing a great disservice to Punjab, Jakhar said.