Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh at the function at Gurdaspur on Thursday. (Rana Simranjit Singh
Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Thursday extended Rs 156.12 crore loan waiver to 26,998 farmers from six Majha districts —Gurdaspur, Pathankot, Hoshiarpur, Nawanshahr, Amritsar and Taran Tarn.
Farmer Budh Singh of Dera Baba Nanak, who was the first to fill the loan waiver form in presence of Captain Amarinder Singh on October 16, 2016 during the Assembly poll campaign, has been asked to wait for some more time to avail the benefit under scheme.
Captain had launched promise of loan wavier from Budh Singh’s house. Budh Singh had taken Rs 5 lakh loan from a nationalised bank and farmers like him are not covered in first phase of loan wavier scheme in which loans taken from cooperative banks up to Rs 2 lakh are being waived off by state government.
“Budh Singh’s loan will be waived off in the next phase when loan of nationalised banks will be waived off,” said Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Congress MLA from Dera Baba Nanak. The CM claimed that so far debt relief to the tune of Rs 457 crore had been disbursed to nearly 1.02 lakh farmers in three phases in state.
While addressing the rally here on Thursday, Singh announced that after completing the debt relief scheme of cooperative loans, the state government would soon begin the process to waive off farm debts from commercial banks that would be completed by the end of the year.
“If God gives us more money, we will wave the loan of the farmers who are left out of the scheme. Right now we have been waiving off up to Rs 2 lakh of debt,” he said.
He pointed out that despite the massive financial crisis facing the state, his government was giving the maximum possible financial assistance to the farmers in terms of debt waiver relief up to Rs 2 lakh. This was the highest in the country, he said, pointing out that in case of Uttar Pradesh it was Rs 1 lakh, while the states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra were waiving off only Rs 50,000 each.
The chief minister said his government has also decided financial assistance worth Rs 50,000 each to the landless labourers to bail them out of the current agrarian crisis. He also announced various projects for the border areas, including a government medical college in Gurdaspur and a new sugar mill in Batala.
Responding to the demand raised by Gurdaspur MP and PPCC chief Sunil Jakhar, the chief minister told the gathering that the state government had already made a budgetary provision for setting up a medical college at Gurdaspur to provide the best healthcare and diagnostic services to the people. He asked Jakhar to identify suitable land in consultation with the local MLA for the proposed medical college.
Singh also laid the foundation stone of Rs 800 crore integrated, state-of-the-art plant of Varun Beverages Limited here at Pathankot on Thursday. Spread over 41.4 acres, the plant will be built in two phases. The CM claimed that it will provide direct and indirect employment to nearly 2000 people. To be operational in 12 months, this will be the first integrated dairy, juice and carbonated soft drinks plant in the country, said the CM.