Punjab, February 5:
The financial burden on farmers in Punjab continues to escalate, severely affecting their economic situation. Recently, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented a report by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in the Lok Sabha, highlighting the debt figures of farmers. This report covers loans from commercial banks, regional rural banks, and cooperative banks.
According to the report, around 38.37 lakh farmers in Punjab are burdened with nearly ₹1.04 lakh crore in debt. Due to financial difficulties, these farmers are unable to repay their loans. Notably, Punjab’s farmers lag behind their counterparts from Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu and Kashmir in repaying commercial bank loans.
Commercial bank loans stand at ₹85,460 crore for 23.28 lakh farmers in Punjab, while 22.23 lakh farmers in Haryana owe ₹71,886 crore, 4.04 lakh farmers in Himachal Pradesh owe ₹8,034 crore, and 9.29 lakh farmers in Jammu and Kashmir are burdened with ₹16,481 crore. In addition to this, there is a significant amount of debt from cooperative and regional rural banks as well.
Around 11.94 lakh farmers in Punjab owe ₹10,021 crore to cooperative banks, while 13.58 lakh farmers in Haryana owe ₹14,354 crore. Similarly, 3.15 lakh farmers in Punjab are burdened with ₹8,583 crore in loans from regional rural banks, and 4.14 lakh farmers in Haryana owe ₹10,615 crore to these banks.
With no significant relief from the central government regarding loan waivers, farmers now pin their hopes on the state government. The central government did not make any major announcements regarding loan waivers for farmers in this year’s budget. Now, farmers in Punjab are hopeful that the state government may provide some relief by reducing their debt in the upcoming state budget.
Sarpanch of Kisan Mazdoor Morcha, Sarwan Singh Pandher, remarked, “If agriculture were that profitable, farmers wouldn’t have been sitting at the border for the past year. Over half of the state’s farmers are burdened with debt, which continues to grow.”
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