CHANDIGARH: The Punjab Cabinet on Tuesday gave its nod to waive loans amounting Rs 68 crore taken by over 4,000 Dalit families from the Punjab Scheduled Castes Land Development and Finance Corporation, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said.At a cabinet meeting chaired by Mann in Chandigarh, it was decided that loans disbursed till March 31, 2020 will be waived.Addressing the media after the meeting, the chief minister said the state government will waive the debt incurred due to loans taken by Dalit families from the corporation for various purposes, including for opening shops, dairy farming, etc.The decision will benefit 4,727 beneficiaries, he said.Mann said Finance Minister Harpal Sigh Cheema in his budget speech this March had promised to waive the debt.With the cabinet approval, the promise will now be fulfilled, he said.Cheema, who was also at the media briefing, said the debt would include the principal amount and any interest on it, including penal interest.It is a big relief for the SC community, he said.The minister said the debt had been pending for the past 20 years and added that neither the Congress nor the Akali Dal-BJP governments of the past cared for SC families when they were in power.Later, an official spokesperson of the chief minister’s office stated that the loan waiver covers all loans disbursed by the PSCFC, offering significant relief to SC and Divyangjan (persons with disabilities) loanees.All 4,727 cases (including 4,685 defaulting loanees and 42 regular loanees) will be covered under this loan waiver scheme.No due certificates will be issued by the district managers of the PSCFC.”The full amount of Rs 67.84 crore comprising Rs 30.02 crore in principal, Rs 22.95 crore in interest, and Rs 14.87 crore in penal interest will be reimbursed to the PSCFC by the state government. The cut-off date for calculating the final interest amount will be the date on which the government issues the notification to implement the scheme,” said the spokesperson.
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