5.63 LAKH FARMERS TO BENEFIT IN 1ST
OF 4-PHASED IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS
·
NEARLY 47000 FARMERS WITH LOANS FROM
COOP INSTITUTIONS TO BE GET CERTIFICATES TOMORROW
Chandigarh January 6
Punjab Chief Minister Captain
Amarinder Singh will on
Sunday formally launch the farm debt
waiver scheme, which will benefit a total of 5.63 lakh farmers in the initial
phase.
Addressing a press conference here
today, Additional Chief Secretary (Co-operation) DP Reddy and Additional Chief
Secretary (Development) Viswajeet Khanna said the government had already identified
5.63 lakh farmers, who had taken loan of nearly Rs. 2,700.00 crores from
cooperative institutions as on 31.03.2017, as beneficiaries for disbursement of
the debt waiver certificates in the first of the four planned phases for
completion of the entire process.
Of these, the process of
verification had been completed for 3.20 lakh farmers. As many as 1.60 lakh
cases with loans to worth Rs 748 crore had been approved pan Punjab. The
symbolic launch event at Mansa will witness disbursement of debt relief
certificates to the tune of Rs. 167.39 crore to nearly 47000 eligible marginal
and small farmers, who had taken loans from 701 Primary Agriculture Cooperative
Societies of the five districts of Mansa, Bathinda, Faridkot, Muktsar and Moga.
Reddy said an extensive plan had
been prepared, in association with the Departments of Agriculture and Revenue,
for finalisation of the list of eligible farmers. This was being regularly
monitored, with emphasis on proper verification and social audit. A web portal
had also been launched by the state government to facilitate this exercise.
As per the plan, the entire debt
waiver process would be completed in four phases. In the first phase, verified
marginal farmers would be handed over the debt relief certificates and the rest
in subsequent phases, after proper verification. For eligible farmers who did
not have Aadhar cards or, in the case of mismatch of Aadhar card seeding either
with banks or revenue records, verification would be done manually for their
inclusion in the scheme in the second phase, Reddy added.
After the completion of the second
phase, the record of small farmers would be duly verified to enable them for
debt relief. Thereafter, if any eligible farmer is left out during any of
the earlier three phases for some reason, he would be considered for
re-verification to bring him within the ambit of scheme. In case any marginal
and small farmer is deprived of debt relief scheme, then he/she can submit
his/her representation to the Assistant Registrar of Cooperative Societies or
Sub Divisional Magistrate of concerned district, which would be resolved
promptly to his/her satisfaction.
Khanna said that loans of farmers
taken from commercial and private banks would be settled thereafter under the
Debt Relief Scheme-2017 already notified by the State, whereby marginal farmers
having land holdings less than 2.5 acres and small farmers having land less
than 5 acres, who have taken loan upto Rs 2 lakh, would be provided debt
relief.
Khanna also clarified that wherever
marginal farmers had availed loans from multiple banks, they shall be further
eligible for debt relief for loans taken from Commercial Banks. This would be
in addition to the relief being provided against loans taken from Cooperative
Banks. The total relief shall, however, be limited to Rs. 2 Lakh.
The instrument of social audit has
specifically been incorporated in the scheme to bring in transparency. The
lists of the beneficiaries are being displayed at public places in the villages
and any objections raised during the social audit would be verified and settled
as per the procedure laid down by the Agricultural Department, said Khanna.
Reiterating the Chief Minister’s
commitment to the farmers, Khanna underscored that the Mansa programme was
aimed at providing debt relief to the marginal farmers whose verification etc
had already been completed. The cases of other marginal farmers were being
evaluated for verification purpose by the revenue authorities, and will be
followed by debt relief to the small farmers who are also eligible under the
scheme.
Meanwhile, Khanna also apprised the
media that the Chief Minister would also launch a massive development plan for
the repair and upgradation of rural link roads having length of about 16000 Kms
at a cost of Rs. 2000 crore.
Registrar Cooperative Societies
Arvinder Singh Bains, Secretary Mandi Board Amit Dhaka and MD Punjab State
Cooperative Bank S.K. Batish were also present at the press conference.
