Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has ordered the release of all farmers who were taken into preventive detention ahead of the Kisan Unions' protest which starts in Patiala today.
The chief minister has also constituted a three-member committee, headed by senior party leader and Mandi Board Chairman Lal Singh, to hear farmers' grievances and also apprise them of the steps taken by his government on crop loan waiver.
The DGP and the district authorities have been asked to release the farmers, who were "resorting to agitation out of sheer desperation and did not really mean to create any law and order problem," the minister said in a statement today.
Of the total 377 farmers, 34 have already been released while 308 are in judicial custody and 35 in police custody, an official spokesperson said.
While appealing to the farmers to be patient, he said that he had inherited a government with empty coffers but despite that, steps to waive crop loans of the farmers had been initiated and a notification, the draft of which was cleared by the cabinet two days ago, will be issued soon.
The CM said he is committed to fulfilling each and every promise made in the partys election manifesto, which had been adopted as a policy paper for his government.
According to the spokesperson, other members of the committee, headed by Lal Singh, are legislators, Ramanjit Singh Sikki (Khadoor Sahib) and Gurpreet Singh Kangar (Rampura Phul).
Punjab Cabinet had on Wednesday approved the draft notification for crop loan waiver scheme announced by chief minister in the state assembly in June this year.
Besides taking over the entire eligible loan amount of the farmers covered under the debt waiver scheme, the government has decided to also take over the outstanding interest of farmers from April 1, 2017 till the date of notification, which will lead to an additional Rs 400 crore benefit to the farmers.
Meanwhile, seven farmers' outfits today started a five-day long dharna in Patiala district in support of their demands including debt waiver and implementation of Swaminathan Commission report.
Farmers' outfits were allotted a place on the outskirts of Patiala, about nine km from the Moti Bagh palace, private residence of the CM, to stage a protest in support of their demands.
In the wake of the farmers' protest, security was beefed up in and around Patiala district to maintain law and order.
Various farmers' outfits including BKU (Ugrahan), BKU (Dakonda), BKU Krantikari (Phool Group), BKU Krantikari (Shinder Group), Kirti Kisan Union, Kisan Sangharsh Committee (Pannu Group) and Ajad Sangharsh Committee are participating in the dharna.
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