CHANDIGARH – Punjab government on Wednesday said it will find ways and means to clear debts of the state’s farmers and will soon approach the Centre in this regard.
Chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh said in a meeting of the state’s administrative secretaries that he will soon take up the debt waiver issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had announced a special package for Uttar Pradesh in the run-up to the assembly elections there.
He, however, made it clear that his government will find ways and means to waive off all farm debts with or without the Centre’s support, said an official spokesman.
Amarinder lauded the efforts of various government departments in ensuring the smooth procurement of wheat.
His government was committed to alleviating the sufferings of the state’s beleaguered peasantry, he added.
The chief minister asked the officials to make all-out efforts to introduce comprehensive job creation schemes, including ‘Apni Gaddi Apna Rozgar’, ‘Hara Tractor Scheme’ and ‘YAARI Enterprises’.
He also ordered steps to set up employment bureaus in all the districts of the state, to be headed by deputy commissioners and to function as enterprise bureaus to facilitate self-employment and start-ups with a focus on micro enterprise.
Amarinder asked the secretaries to prepare a comprehensive action plan to implement poll promises in their respective departments in right earnest, with special focus on the government’s main programmes such as employment generation, houses for homeless and 30% reservation for women in jobs.
