Punjab to extend Rs 200-crore loan waiver to 50,000 farmers tomorrow

The government is working on making it a mega event with it being Punjab Congress Committee president Sunil Kumar Jakhar’s parliamentary constituency. Party MLAs from the districts have been assigned to ensure crowd presence at the function.

According to the plan of the government, a loan waiver of not more than Rs 2 lakh each could be extended to small and marginal farmers. The farmers have been asked to provide a self-declaration that they did not have any loan on any other piece of land except the one being considered under this phase.

In the first phase of waiver, the government is giving relief only on crop loans from cooperative banks. Earlier, around 47,000 farmers of five districts including Mansa, Bathinda, Faridkot, Muktsar and Moga were extended the waiver of Rs 197 crore. In the second function, around 29,000 farmers from Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Fazilka and Ferozepore were handed over waiver worth Rs 162 crore in a function at Nakodar.

With Thursday’s function around 1.25 lakh farmers would be covered and a relief of Rs 460 crores would be extended. The government has announced a waiver of Rs 9500 crore to 10.25 lakh farmers. The government has set aside Rs 4200 crore in annual budget this year for the waiver. The CM has, however, made it clear that the entire benefit of Rs 9500 crore would be rolled out to the farmers in this year.