Chandigarh, May 19: Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Saturday flayed Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal’s remark on farm loan waiver as “ridiculous and baseless”. The latter had alleged that the Chief Minister was trying to pass the burden of farm loan waiver to the Centre.
Lashing out at the SAD president for “trying to mislead farmers with his unfounded statement”, the Chief Minister said had the SAD-BJP government done anything for farmers during their 10-year rule, the farming community would not have been under such distress today.
He said while his government was doing everything in its power to bring succour to the farmers, the financial mess left by Badals and their government prevented it from giving immediate total relief to them, necessitating the Centre’s intervention.
He said his government’s debt waiver scheme was on track and his own commitment to waive the farm debts was sacrosanct.
The CM said cooperative bank loans worth Rs 999.98 crore of 2,02,186 farmers had already been waived and the remaining debt of farmers in this category would be waived by November, notwithstanding the financial mess inherited by his government from the earlier government.
