Permanent solution to farm debt, if Cong forms govt: Amarinder

Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh today said if his party is voted to power in the Assembly elections next year, it will work out a permanent solution for settling the farm debt so that no farmer is forced to take extreme steps like suicide.
"I know it is a difficult task, but I have taken it as a challenge because we can't keep on watching our farmers kill themselves without doing anything," Amarinder said, adding, "it is a tragedy that those who fed the whole nation are being left to die in debt and we need to do something".
The PCC president said that the trade and industry had also suffered "massive losses" in the state in the last nine years and most of the industrial units were either "shutting down or moving out".

He alleged that it has not only led to loss of employment but also massive loss of revenue as well.
"That is why I have thought of providing incentive and stimulus to the industry for revival", the Lok Sabha MP from Amritsar said.
On the employment front, Amarinder said that he had already announced that at least one job will be provided to at least one member in each family so that every family in Punjab has a regular and reasonable monthly income to sustain itself.
"Like in my previous term I had got mega projects with 2,000 jobs for each Rs 100 crore project, we will encourage investment by way of incentives to generate jobs in the state," he said.

The former Chief Minister said that all the welfare schemes will be continued with enhanced allocations. Besides, he added, the Shagun scheme will be enhanced to Rs 51,000 and old age, widow and handicapped pension will be enhanced to Rs 2,000 a month.