Have done enough for farmers, can’t waive loans: CM

Chief minister Parkash Singh Badal said the Punjab government had already done so much for farmers and it cannot waive their loans.

Chief minister Parkash Singh Badal said the Punjab government had already done so much for farmers and it cannot waive their loans.

Badal said waving the bank debt was the prerogative of the Centre and the state had no role to play in it. (HT Photo)

Speaking on the sidelines of a sangat darshan here on Saturday, the CM said no other state government could match Punjab in launching welfare schemes for the farmers. Badal said waving the bank debt was the prerogative of the Centre and the state had no role to play in it.

The state government has launched a scheme to provide interest-free crop loans to the farmers and it was also providing free electricity for tubewells worth Rs 5,000 crore annually to them, he added.

Reacting to state Congress chief Captain Amarinder Singh’s remarks on the Justice Zora Singh Commission report, Badal the report had been prepared by a retired judge and not by the state government.