Chandigarh
The Punjab government on Wednesday announced waiver of loans worth ₹590 crore under the farm debt waiver scheme for labourers and landless farmers.
The cheques would be issued at a state-level function on August 20, said an official spokesperson after a high-level meeting held here.
The government will pay off loans to the tune of ₹520 crore of 2,85,325 members of primary agricultural cooperative societies, thus ensuring a relief of ₹20,000 per member, said chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh. He directed the finance and cooperation departments to kick off the process for effective implementation of the decision on the ground.
The spokesperson said the government had formulated a debt relief scheme for farm labourers and landless farming members of PACS-2019, which would cover only consumption loans to the members of the primary agricultural cooperative societies advanced by district central cooperative banks in Punjab through primary agricultural cooperative societies.
So far, loans worth ₹4,624 crore have been waived of 5.64 lakh farmers under the scheme. Besides, loans of the SC and BC categories have been written off up to the amount of ₹50,000 each, including waiver up to ₹58.39 crore of 6,405 beneficiaries by the SC corporation and ₹20.71 crore of 1,225 beneficiaries by the BC corporation, the spokesperson said.