Chandigarh, June 15: The expert group set up by the Punjab Government will take at least two more months to give a final report on how to deal with the issue of loan waiver to the farmers.
. “My objective is to free farmers from the vicious circle of debt and put the farming sector on a firm footing,” said T Haque, head of the group, who interacted with various farmer unions on Thursday.
He said the farmers’ “liberation from debt” would be possible only in phases and not in one go because the debt burden was too heavy. However, the Capt Amarinder Singh government, which is under tremendous pressure of the Opposition and farmer unions on the loan waiver issue, is keen to make some announcement in its Budget to be presented on June 20.
There is a possibility that the commission may give an interim report to the government in a day or so after interacting with various stakeholders. In the first phase, the state government may waive the loans of farmers owning land up to 2.5 acres.
Head of the Land Policy Cell of the Niti Aayog and former chairman of the Commission for Agriculture Costs and Prices, Haque said he was interacting with banks, leaders of farmer unions and all others concerned, including top officials of the Punjab Government.
Union leaders like Sukhdev Singh Kokri, Ruldu Singh Mansa, Joginder Singh Ugrahan, Dr Darshan Pal, Jagmohan Uppal, Bhupinder Singh Mann , Balbir Singh Rajewal and others urged for a total waiver of the debt. “We want a complete write-off of all the loans, including institutional and non-institutional,” the leaders said in one voice.
News Source:http://www.tribuneindia.com
