Free power to farmers a poll promise: Amarinder

Chandigarh, Dec 1 (UNI) Reacting to media reports about free power to farmers, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today said that the decision was one of the poll promises included in the Congress' Election manifesto during assembly polls of 2002.

Clarifying his stand on the free power to the farming community, Capt Singh said it was a justifiable and logical decision based on the rationale of agri-economics that had revealed that the input costs of farmers have risen by over 127 per cent during the last decade as against the increase of 51 per cent in MSP which was almost stagnated.

To substantiate his stand on free power, Capt Singh observed that despite maximum contribution to Central Pool of food grains, there had not been much capital formation and investment in Punjab's agriculture sector. He further said there had been a continuous fragmentation of land holdings in the state during the last two decades, nearly 66 per cent land holding of the state were less than five acres, making the living of their owners extremely difficult.

He mentioned that the state government had taken concrete steps to revert the negative growth rate of 1.8 per cent in 2002 to more than 2 per cent in 2006 but there was lot more which needed to be done to resolve the problems of rural indebtedness on a long term basis.

Free power to the farmers irrespective of their land holdings was also a right step to relieve them from the financial crisis due to the heavy debt burden that had been mounting over the years because of their decreased annual income from wheat and paddy, he said.

Capt Singh also said he was in constant touch with the Centre for an early solution to the problem of the rural indebtedness.

The scheme of One Time Settlement (OTS) for short and long term agriculture loans and revolving cash credit to the farmers had been introduced to minimise the incidence of indebtedness on Punjab farmers, he said.

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