Jalandhar, February 25
In a first-of-its-kind effort to help debt-ridden farmers, Punjab National Bank (PNB) has started the PNB Krishik Saathi Scheme in 12 villages of Nadala block (Kapurthala) on a pilot basis.

A function was organised at Nadala today in which 200 farmers participated and evinced interest in availing the benefits of the scheme.

The villages covered include Saintpur, Talwandi Purdal, Bagwanpur, Mehmudpur, Dalla, Habibwal, Ballochak, Dolowal, Bariar, Mussekhel, Issabucha and Nadala.

Deputy General Manager P.K. Sharma said various studies had shown that a majority of the rural households, especially small and marginal farmers, largely depended on private and non-institutional sources for credit.

It is estimated that 58 per cent of the total debt in rural Punjab was to its moneylenders. This scheme was started to get such farmers out of the clutches of moneylenders and depending on the success of the project, the scheme would cover all their branches in Jalandhar and Kapurthala districts, he pointed out.

The field staff of the bank had identified such farmers in the block who were then persuaded to avail a loan of up to Rs 50,000 by submitting a simple affidavit that they had availed loans from moneylenders and they intended to use this money to repay their debt, he added.

To give more punch to the scheme, the condition of obtaining a discharge certificate from the moneylender had been waived in favour of the one in which only an affidavit could be submitted by the beneficiary.

For identification purposes, the services of the village panchayat had been sought, he said.

The loan availed under the scheme would be in the form of a term loan and would be repayable in five to seven years in half-yearly instalments. The amount of the loan would be credited to the savings account of the borrower.

Chief Manager of Lead Bank, Kapurthala, V.K. Sachdeva said the other objectives of the scheme were effecting a synergy between the bank and the farmers and to ensure financial inclusion.

The rate of interest would be 11.5 per cent as compared to 36 per cent charged by private lenders, he added.

In today’s function, 124 beneficiaries availed the scheme, in addition to 72 farmers who availed benefits under the kisan card scheme. A sum of Rs 237 lakh was disbursed on the occasion.

Hoshiarpur, February 25
Condemning Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee for ignoring the people of Tanda, Dasuya and Mukerian segments of this district in the railway budget presented by her in Parliament yesterday, Chairman of the District Planning and Development Board and MLA of Dasuya segment Amarjit Singh Sahi stated that he, along with representatives of various NGOs and institutions of his segment, had sent repeated representations to the Railway Minister.

They had demanded introduction of the Jan Shatabdi Express between Jammu and Mumbai, passenger train between Jalandhar and Pathankot railway section during day hours, completion of the rail link between Nangal and Talwara township and allowance of stoppage of Swaraj Express at Dasuya to the benefit of the people of the towns as well as the adjoining areas of Himachal Pradesh.

Talking to this correspondent on the phone here today, Sahi lamented that Mamta Banerjee had turned a deaf ear to their requests.

Criticising the MP from Hoshiarpur Santosh Chaudhary for her failure in protecting the interests of the people of the area, Sahi pointed out that Lalit Narain Misra, then Railway Minister, laid the foundation stone of the Nangal-Talwara track in 1974 at Amb in Himachal Pradesh. As many as 36 years had passed, but the rail track from Nangal to Chururu village in Una district had not been completed.

The number of rail passengers on the Jalandhar-Jammu section had tremendously increased, but the number of trains on this section had not been increased accordingly.

Hoshiarpur, February 25
The Mukerian police last night booked Sudhir Kumar, Sachin Mahajan and Vicky Mahajan, all of New Bhangala, under section 302 and 34 of the IPC.

According to police sources, Rakesh Kumar of the same village alleged that the accused beat up and injured his son Puneet.

Later, Puneet was admitted to the Civil Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

Sources said a clash between the accused and deceased Puneet had taken place before Divali which was stated to be the reason of attack on the latter.

Chain snatcher, accomplices, held

A youth who, along with some of his accomplices, who tried to flee after snatching a gold chain from a woman in the Civil Lines area, was nabbed by the police.

The arrested youth was identified as Sandeep Singh of Garhdial village in Jalandhar district.

According to police sources, two youths snatched a gold chain weighing about 28 gm from Madhu Walia, wife of Brij Mohan Walia of local Shalimar Nagar.

Madhu raised the alarm following which a PCR team chased the accused and succeeded in nabbing Sandeep Singh. Another accused was identified as Gagan Bajwa of Basant Vihar. The identification of the remaining accused is being done.

A case under sections 382 and 34 of the IPC has been registered at the city police station in this connection.