Amarinder Singh announces Rs 590 cr debt waiver for landless farmers, labourers

The cheques will be issued at a state-level function on August 20, said an official spokesperson after a high-level meeting held Wednesday.

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has announced a debt waiver of Rs 590 crore under the farm debt waiver scheme for labourers and landless farmers — a 2017 pre-poll promise of the Congress.

The cheques will be issued at a state-level function on August 20, said an official spokesperson after a high-level meeting held Wednesday.

The Punjab government will pay off loans to the tune of Rs 590 crore of 2,85,325 members of Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies (PACS), thus ensuring a relief of Rs 20,000 per member, said the chief minister.

He directed the finance and cooperation departments to kick off the process for effective implementation of the decision on ground.

The government has formulated a debt relief scheme for farm labourers and landless farming members of PACS-2019, which will cover only consumption loan to the members of primary agricultural cooperative societies advanced by district central cooperative banks in the state of Punjab through primary agricultural cooperative societies.

The chief minister’s announcements follow the waiver of farmers’ loans under the chief minister’s flagship ‘Debt Waiver Scheme’. So far, loans worth Rs 4,624 crore have been waived of for 5.64 lakh farmers under the scheme, which was announced as part of the 2017 poll promises by the Punjab Congress.

In addition, loans of the SC and BC categories have been written off upto the amount of Rs 50,000 each, including waiver upto Rs 58.39 crore of 6,405 beneficiaries by the SC Corporation and Rs 20.71 crore of 1,225 beneficiaries by the BC Corporation.

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