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Sukhpal Khaira asks Badal to
emulate Maharashtra on farm loan waiver
WSN Network
 CHANDIGARH:
Utilising the simple instrument of writing a letter, Punjab Congress
MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira is increasingly perfecting the art of
embarrassing the Akali Dal Government by raising issues of public
concern in a manner that sends the Akalis scurrying for cover.
After creating a
piquant situation for Parkash Singh Badal and his son Akali Dal
chief Sukhbir Singh Badal by asking for a special session of the
Punjab Assembly to pass a unanimous resolution for support for Sikhs
fighting against the ban on turban in France, Sukhpal chose the New
Year’s first day to fire another missile: asking for a special loan
waiver for
Punjab’s
farmers along the lines of
Maharashtra. He
said this will be a most appropriate New Year gift for the farm
sector.
Maharashtra’s
new Congress Chief Minister, Ashok Chavan, has announced a loan
waiver over and above the one announced by the Central Government
recently. The Rs 6,208 crore waiver will benefit about 41 lakh
farmers of
Maharashtra with
those having
pre-1997 debts
not covered by the scheme announced by the centre earlier.
Sukhpal said
Badal can take a cue and simply replicate the waiver in
Punjab at a time
when the agrarian economy is in doldrums while the SAD-BJP regime
keeps parroting the investments in the real estate sector.
Maharashtra’s
new gift covers total waiver for debts up to Rs. 20000, waiver of
Rs.20,000 for debts over that amount if the borrower repays the
rest, and adjustments
for those who
have paid their loans regularly.
The Centre’s
recent loan waiver does not cover the debts incurred from private
money lenders, a major portion of the total indebted peasantry.
Tongue in cheek, Sukhpal caustically told Badal, “The recent loan
waiver by the central government was severely criticized by your
party and the state government by calling it inadequate and a cruel
joke played on the farmers of
Punjab. Now that
a state government like Maharashtra has
pioneered and
taken an initiative at the state level to assuage the feelings of
the suffering farming fraternity, I feel
Punjab needs to
follow the footsteps of this magnanimous gesture. As it is you and
your party who have been claiming to be the champions of the farmers
of Punjab,
it is now a testing time of your leadership in so far the interests
of the peasantry are concerned.” And then he rubbed it in: “I would
in fact go a step further and
assure you 100%
support of the Congress legislature party in this noble cause. We
demand that a special session of the Vidhan Sabha be summoned at
the earliest to discuss, debate and pass these special benefits to
the farmers of
Punjab.”
7 January 2009
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