Punjab Government launches system of 'self declaration' on land assets
Punjab Government launches system of 'self declaration' on land assets : Punjab government has agreed upon to launch a system of self-declaration on land assets by the beneficiaries of the farm debt waiver scheme. This system has been introduced so that worthy and eligible farmers can get the benefit of the scheme.
In the meeting chaired by the Chief Minister, it had been decided that the government employees and retired pensioners who pay income tax should be excluded from the scheme to make it sure that the poorest of the poor get its benefit. A notification to this effect will be issued soon, he added.
Punjab Chief Minister said such self-declaration should have to be made of all the land assets of the farmers in villages in Punjab as well as in other states. He said that self-declarations and then tracking down by random checks would ensure fool-proof mechanism to plug any loopholes in the farm debt waiver scheme.
The MLAs putting their point forward said that there were many farmers who had transferred a small part of their big land holding to their son/sons to take benefit of the cooperative loans.
The MLA said that there are some big farmers with huge land in Rajasthan but holdings less than 2.5 acres in Bathinda had been included in the debt waiver. He suggested that the government should take affidavits about the land holdings before finalising beneficiary lists.
MLAs said that some NRIs had also been added in the list of loan waiver whereas the scheme should focus to distribute it to the deserving small and marginal farmers. There was a suggestion for issuance of waiver certificates district wise, with proper checking of revenue records to ensure that the real beneficiaries get the waiver.
Chief Principal Secretary to CM Suresh Kumar explained the MLAs that how the scheme could be implemented in phases. He said that waiver of loans for farmers who committed suicide would be taken up after the committee set up by the Vidhan Sabha and the report had been submitted in this regard.
Assuring MLAs the Chief Minister said that all firm and mandatory steps would be taken by the government to foil misuse of the scheme and no undeserving farmer got benefited.
- PTC News
