New agriculture policy to safeguard interests of farmers: CM to farm unions

Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann on Thursday assured the farmers that the state government is committed to safeguard their interests and new agriculture policy will be a step forward in this direction.

During meeting with delegation of BKU (Ugrahan) and Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union, the Chief Minister said that the draft of the Punjab Agriculture Policy is ready but will be finalised only after due deliberations with food growers. He said that the draft will be shared with the farmers by September 30 and their suggestions will be sought on the policy. Bhagwant Singh Mann said that the suggestions of the farmers will be duly incorporated in the policy as state government does not want to impose anything on the food growers rather it is committed to consult them for making agriculture a profitable venture.

Dwelling on another agenda, the Chief Minister further said that the state government is also mulling to introduce a One Time Settlement (OTS) scheme to offer much-needed relief to debt-ridden farmers who have been struggling to repay loans to cooperative banks. He said that every effort will be made to bail out the farmers of the state from the ongoing agrarian crisis. Bhagwant Singh Mann said that the state government is solidly with the food growers of the state who through hard work and resilience have made the country self reliant in food production.

On the issue of withdrawing the cases registered against the leaders of farmer unions, the Chief Minister asked the officers to explore the feasibility of this to secure the interests of farmers and a way out will be found in this regard. He also assured the farmers that the state government will re-examine the rejected cases pertaining to compensation in suicides committed by farmers and labourers. Bhagwant Singh Mann also asked the officers concerned to reconcile the cases of five marla plots to be given to the needy persons, besides directing them to make the 5 marla plots free from encroachment within three-six months across the state. The Chief Minister assured the delegation of farmers and farm labourers to sympathetically look into issues like compensation in death of dairy livestock, depleting ground water table, water pollution and Buddha Nullah and others.

The Chief Minister was accompanied by Cabinet Ministers Harpal Singh Cheema, Harbhajan Singh ETO and Gurmeet Singh Khudian.