The Punjab government will provide debt relief of Rs 200 crore to around 50,000 farmers in six districts in the next phase of the farm debt waiver scheme, a spokesperson said on Sunday.
The debt waiver certificates will be given at a state level function to be held Gurdaspur in the first week of April.
The state government has also assured that all eligible farmers under this scheme would get relief and no eligible farmer would be left out, the spokesperson said.
"Around 50,000 beneficiaries of six districts - Gurdaspur, Pathankot, Hoshiarpur, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, Amritsar and Tarn Taran would get relief of around Rs 200 crore," the spokesperson said.
Under the farm debt waiver scheme of the Punjab government, loan waiver relief up to Rs 2 lakh would be provided to marginal and small farmers who have borrowed crop loan from cooperative institutions, public sector banks and other commercial banks as on March 31, 2017.
The spokesman said 46,556 marginal farmers of five districts - Mansa, Bathinda, Faridkot, Muktsar and Moga, have already been provided relief of Rs 167.39 crore at Mansa in January this in the first phase. In the next phase, a total 29,192 farmers of five districts - Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Ludhiana, Fazilka and Ferozepur - were provided relief of Rs 162.16 crore at Nakodar earlier this month.
"So far, 75,748 farmers of 10 districts have been provided debt relief of Rs 329.55 crore," the spokesperson said.
The Congress had promised debt waiver to farmers in its election manifesto before assembly polls in February last year. It won power, securing 77 seats in the 117-member assembly.
The total outstanding loan of Punjab farmers is said to e around Rs 90,000 crore.
--IANS
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