Harsimrat Badal
Chandigarh, December 16, 2016: Union food processing minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal today said the fraud being played on gullible farmers in Punjab by State Congress president Amarinder Singh had been exposed with the Congress leader now desperately trying to cover his tracks after promising a loan waiver scheme in Punjab.
In a statement here, Union food processing minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal said the very fact that Mr Amarinder Singh had approached the Prime Minister now proved that he had no intention of waiving off loans of Punjabi farmers.
Mrs Badal said today’s developments was also proof that the Punjab Congress leader had become utterly frustrated and was ready to resort to lies and even deceit to befool the voters. “Your desperation is understandable. You have been out of power for ten years. You have been out of touch with Punjabis for a similar period of time. Now your fate is in the hands of campaign managers who are trying to hard sell you like a commodity. They are selling you by spouting lies and you are becoming a willing partner in this game of deceit by asking farmers to fill loan waiver forms which you have no intention of ever honouring”.
The Union minister said the farmers in Punjab had suffered for sixty years due to the disastrous agriculture policies of successive Congress governments. She said the discrimination against Punjab was such that Punjab farmers did not see their loans being waived off despite the announcement of a loan waiver scheme by the previous UPA government.
Mrs Badal said the truth was that it was the SAD-BJP government under the leadership of S Parkash Singh Badal who had done the most for farmers. “We have recently waived off interest on crop loans of Rs 50,000 making it easier for small farmers to avail funds for seeds and other inputs to sow crops. We have also passed an Indebtedness bill which protects our farmers from being charged excess interest. We have also established Debt Settlement Tribunals headed by former judges at the Commissionerate level to ensure all disputes of farmers are settled to their satisfaction. Farmers will now also be able to take loans from cooperative banks at a nominal interest".
The Union minister said it seemed Mr Amarinder was living in a gilded cage surrounded by his coterie which kept him busy in other activities and he missed both the passing off the Punjab Settlement of Agricultural Indebtedness Bill, 2016 as well as the formation of the debt tribunals. “If you would have known about these development you would have realized that what you aim to do has already been done by the SAD-BJP government".
Mrs Badal also asked Mr Amarinder to come clean on what he had done for the farming community as chief minister before crying crocodile tears on farmers issues. She said everyone knew that Amarinder had taken back the free power facility given to farmers by Badal Sahab. She said similarly other welfare oriented schemes including the shagun scheme were discontinued during the Congress regime. "With such a background it was only natural that you had no intention to honouring any loan waiver scheme as has been proved by today's developments. Please stop cheating farmers and practice what you preach. Only then will Punjabi farmers believe you as they believe S Badal", the Union minister added.