M A I N   N E W S

Coop Dept ready with Rs 353 cr relief package for farmers
Sarbjit Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 20
The Punjab Cooperation Department is ready with a package to give relief of Rs 353 crore on the interest on loans advanced by the Punjab State Cooperative Bank and the Punjab State Cooperative Agriculture Development Bank to the farm sector. Besides, the department is ready to slash the existing rate of interest on loans from 10 per cent to 9 per cent from June 1.

Revealing this, the Cooperation and Horticulture Minister, Mr Jasjit Singh Randhawa, said at a meet-the-press programme here today that the department had prepared a one-time settlement (OTS) scheme for cooperative loans. Under the scheme, the department had decided not to recover more than double the principal amount advanced as loan to farmers in the state. For instance, if a farmer was given Rs 50,000 as loan, he would have to return only Rs 1,00,000 under the OTS scheme in a specified period.

The decision, which would be implemented by mid-June after clearance from the Council of Ministers, had been taken to reduce the debt burden of farmers. The issue of cooperative loans had been discussed at the Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh's level a number of times. " I had proposed this scheme to the Chief Minister," he said. Of the total loans amounting to Rs 24,000 crore against farmers, Rs 7,000 crore was of cooperative banks, Rs 5,000 crore of nationalised and other commercial banks and the remaining Rs 12,000 crore of private moneylenders and commission agents.

" Besides giving relief at our own level, we have submitted a separate proposal to the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, and the Finance Minister, Mr P.Chidambaram,to free farmers from the debt burden of Rs 24,000 crore", said Mr Randhawa. There was a positive response from the Union Government in this regard. He admitted that farmers had committed suicide in Punjab because of the debt burden.

In the past few years, the rate of interest on farm loans had been brought down from 14 per cent to 10 per cent and it would be further reduced to 9 per cent from June 1. The loans of farmers who had got these earlier at 14 or 15 per cent rate of interest had been restructured to bring down the rate of interest to 10 per cent, he added. The rate of interest on Housefed loans would also be slashed to 9 per cent from 10 per cent, he said.

Mr Randhawa said that except Sugarfed, all other organisations of the Cooperation Department, including Markfed, Milkfed, Housefed, the Punjab State Cooperative Bank and the Punjab State Cooperative Agriculture Development Bank, had earned a profit of about Rs 100 crore during 2005-06, he added. As many as 1,600 employees would be recruited soon in cooperative institutions, including both banks, to fill vacant slots. He admitted that because of the shortage of staff, branches of cooperative banks had to be closed at certain places.

He said besides procuring 18 lakh tonnes of wheat for the national pool, Markfed had procured 19,000 tonnes for trading purposes.

He said that multipurpose cooperative societies had got licences to set up petrol stations in the Jalandhar and Moga areas. " Because of the delay in giving no- objection certificates by the Deputy Commissioners in certain districts, this process had been impeded."

The process of privatising the cooperative sugar mills at Ajnala, Fazilka and Nakodar had been stalled. The government would try to revive these sugar mills. However, the process to dispose of the cooperative sugar mills at Zira, Jagraon, Taran Tarn, Faridkot and Rakhra was on. There were 15 cooperative sugar mills and the total loss to Sugarfed was about Rs 300 crore. However, there were certain cooperative sugar mills which were earning a profit. Regular employees of sugar mills under liquidation would be accommodated elsewhere. The others would be given compensation on the basis of the settlement reached with them, he added.