Rajya Sabha MP Bajwa demands one time loan waiver for Punjab farmers

New Delhi/Chandigarh/Punjab May 5: The Congress Rajya Sabha member from Punjab and the former state party president Mr Partap Singh Bajwa,while calling for all-party concensus on the issues concerning the farmers in the country, demanded one time loan waiver for the farmers in his home state. This was a must in the wake of increasing incidence of suicides by the farmers and said a total of 56 farmers had ended their lives in the state in three months from January to March last.
Making his maiden intervention in the Zero hour after his election to the Upper House, he pointed out that according to one study, the total loan on farmers in Punjab amounted to about Rs. 69,000 crore including institutional loan of about Rs 54,000. The average loan per farming household in the state was approximately Rs 5.50 lakh. He reminded the House that the UPA government had announced one time loan waiver of Rs 72,000 crore for the entire country.
He referred to the latest case of mother and son committing suicide in Jodhpur village of Barnala district in the presence of police and civil administration officials collaborating with the commission agent who had gone to take forcible possession of the two acre land owned by the family.
He asserted nothing could be more unfortunate than the farmers in this food basket of the country resorting to this extreme action of resorting to suicides. He said Punjab was the land of warriors, sages and seers and had played main role in providing food security to the country when total dependence was on imports.
Mr Bajwa allayed the popular perception that Punjab was the land of big and prosperous farmers and hammered the basic issue of about 70 per cent of the farmers owning less than five acres of land.
He said the total loan quantum assessment was based upon the studies conducted by the Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana and the Punjabi University, Patiala, independently.
He also stressed that law should be enacted to protect the lands of the farmers from being taken over by the money lenders or the banks in case of default in the payment of loan. Moreover, the rate of interest charged by the money lenders should be pegged at the same rate on which banks advance loan to the farmers. The money lenders are charging anything from interest of 24 to 36 per cent.
He appealed to all political parties to join in this endeavor to save farmers from the worsening plight.