The Punjab government is initiating an action against big farmers who have defaulted on loans taken from cooperative banks despite their paying capacity, a state minister said today.
Big farmers owe around Rs 276 crore to cooperative banks, state Cooperation Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said.
"Recovery will be given a push to strengthen the cooperative banks and work-oriented approach model on the lines of private banks will be adopted. In the first phase, a list has been drawn up comprising big time defaulters who are big farmers and have not repaid even a single loan installment," Randhawa said in a statement here.
"Every month action will be initiated against 20 big farmers and those 20 farmers that have been included this time have loan amounting to Rs 10-12 crore outstanding against them," he said.
"These farmers have the means to repay the loans but they have not paid and also that they have availed loan in the names of their different family members. The first name in the list is of Dyal Singh Kolianwali of Muktsar district who has a loan amount of Rs one crore pending against him," he said.
Kolianwali is an Akali leader.
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Randhawa further said there are 3,543 cooperative societies in the state out of which 1,993 are making profits while 1,550 are running into losses.
He said that the department would make strenuous efforts to infuse a fresh lease of life into the societies incurring losses while the profit making ones would be strengthened.
Giving relief to farmers approaching 'fard kendars' for getting the jamabandis to avail Maximum Credit Limit (MCL), the cooperation minister said farmers would not need new jamabandis who have already been verified by the patwaris or whose land record is uploaded on the portal.
The minister also divulged that he has directed the Chief Secretary to issue instructions in this regard that if any farmer needs jamabandi then the same should be made available to him immediately so as to ensure that they do not face harassment.
The minister further added that the land ownership report of the farmers already available with the district co-operative banks can be termed as the base in this regard.
Randhawa also disclosed that the need for the new jamabandi would arise only in that case when the farmer does not agree to the present report of the revenue department.