Punjab Government has covered all eligible marginal farmers with land holdings below 2.5 acres in Ludhiana district under its ambitious initiative to bail out peasantry from debt trap after a waiver worth Rs 20.99 crore was given to 3430 farmers in eight debt-relief programs, held on Wednesday.A total of 27804 marginal farmers belonging to Ludhiana have received the benefit under the scheme as per its criteria and loans worth Rs 160.03 crore has been waived off by the government.On Wednesday, eight functions were organized in various areas of the district including Gill where 372 farmers were covered and loans worth Rs 1.89 crore were waived off by government, 530 farmers in Dakha where loans of Rs 2.81 crore were cleared, 426 farmers in Jagraon got benefit of the scheme and their loans worth Rs 2.30 crore amounting ranging from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 50,000 were waived off.In Sahnewal, 532 farmers were covered under the loan waiver scheme and their loans worth Rs 3.90 crore was waived off. A loan waiver of Rs 31 lakh was given to 41 farmers in Khanna, Rs 3.23 crore to 581 farmers in Payal, Rs 2.54 crore belonging 464 farmers in Raikot and loans worth Rs 4.01 crore of 484 farmers were cleared by Punjab Government.
Reiterating the commitment of Punjab government to cover each debt-ridden farmer under this program, MP Ravneet Singh Bittu said that it is just the initial phase which had covered only marginal farmers, now the government will waive off the loans of small farmers and later those who had taken debt from commercial banks will get the benefit.Bittu also targeted the previous SAD-BJP government for doing nothing for the peasantry. MP personally presided over three functions comprising Gill, Dakha and Jagraon areas and distributed debt waiver certificates to the farmers.Samrala MLA Amrik Singh Dhillon distributed debt waiver certificates in Samrala, Former Minister Tej Parkash Singh Kotli along with MLA Payal Lakhbir Singh Lakha gave the certificates in Payal, ADC Jagraon Neeru Katyal Gupta handed loan waiver certificates in Raikot, Former Minister Tej Parkash Singh Kotli was present in Khanna's debt waiver function and gave certificates to the farmers and SDM Amarjeet Singh Bains in Ludhiana East's debt waiver function gave the certificates to the eligible farmers. Gill MLA Kuldeep Singh Vaid, Former Minister Malkeet Singh Dakha, District Congress Chief Gurdev Singh Lapra, senior Congress leaders Major Singh Bhaini, Satwinder Kaur Bitti, Manjeet Singh Hambran, concerned SDMs, police officials and a huge number of farmers were present in these functions.