Cong playing 'massive fraud' with farmers: SAD

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today accused the Congress-led government in Punjab of playing a "massive fraud" with farmers by resorting to "cheap gimmicks" like doing away with 'kurki' (auction of mortgaged property).
The Punjab cabinet yesterday gave its formal nod to Chief Minister Amarinder Singh's promise to scrap 'kurki', paving way for far-reaching relief to the debt-burdened farmers of the state.
In a statement here, former minister and SAD general secretary Bikram Singh Majithia said the "deceit and double speak" of the Congress government could be gauged from the fact that it announced yesterday that it had done away with 'kurki' of indebted farmers.

"One only has to read the fine print to realise that kurki has been done away with only in case of loans taken from cooperative banks. Such loans constitute only 10 to 15 per cent of the total loans taken by Punjab farmers," he said.
Stating that it was a "publicity stunt", Majithia said, "Everyone knows that the SAD-BJP government did not let the cooperative department implement this law as no kurki was happening on the ground."
"The SAD-BJP government had passed the Punjab Settlement of Agriculture Indebtedness Bill, 2016. Such path breaking legislation ensured government regulated settlement of farmer loans," he claimed.

However, the practice of kurki restarted immediately after the Congress came into power in the State, he claimed.

"It is likely to continue with the government not taking nationalised banks and arhatiyas (commission agents) in the ambit of yesterday's decision which was solely concerned with cooperative bank loans only. This means the net impact of the cabinet decision on kurki is zero," he added.
Asking the Congress government not to run away from its poll promises, Majithia asked it to tell Punjabis why it had failed to implement its word to institute a complete loan waiver of around one lakh crore rupees immediately after coming to power.

"The Congress government is in power for two and a half months now. It must explain why it is not implementing the complete loan waiver promise and trying to cheat the farmers with cheap stunts even which are not being implemented in the right spirit," he added.