Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal on Saturday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to direct the Union Finance Ministry to offer a comprehensive relief package for farmers.
In a statement, Mr. Badal said the decision not to include the farming community in the ambit of the Centre’s scheme which seeks to provide ex gratia payment of the difference between compound interest and simple interest to borrowers for six months proved that policy makers were totally out of sync with grassroot realities.
He said the farmers were expecting a complete waiver of crop loans and interest on tractor loans as well as loans taken for other allied activities. “It is shocking that instead of doing this, the Union government is not even ready to save them from compound interest being charged from them due to default in instalments.”
