Faridkot Co-op, Revenue Depts land in loan waiver controversy

Balwant Garg

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, February 6

The Cooperative and the Revenue Department in Faridkot district were caught in a difficult situation after names of many bigwigs figured in the list of 5,056 beneficiaries of farm loan waiver. The issue also stirred a political storm here.

Mantar Singh Brar, a former Akali MLA, is livid after the name of his mother, Manjit Kaur Brar, wife of late MLA Jaswinder Singh Brar, figured among the beneficiaries.

Dubbing it as a mischievous act on the behalf of his political opponents and government officials here, Brar claimed that his mother had not submitted any undertaking to avail the waiver as she was receiving a pension from the state government.

But the Cooperative and Revenue Department in the district, which prepared the list for granting waiver of Rs 31.6 crore to 5,056 ‘small’ farmers, claimed that they had the self-declaration of Manjit Kaur Brar in which she denied receiving any pension.

To avail the benefit of the waiver, the beneficiary should be owning less than five acres of land, not paying income tax and not getting pension or salary from government.

Faridkot Deputy Registrar of Co-Operative Societies Sukhpal Singh Gill said no loan waiver was allowed without self-declaration-cum-affidavit of the beneficiary. “We are in possession of the affidavits of all claimants”, he said.

A loan waiver of Rs 1,05,386 each to wife (Jasbir Kaur) and son (Harsimran Singh) of Sher Singh Mand, the SGPC member, has also caught many by surprise here. Jasbir Kaur is also a former SPGC member.

Mand claimed that the Cooperative Department employees got their signatures on some papers without giving details. “My wife and son signed the papers, not knowing much about it”, he said.

“It is a media-orchestrated issue, otherwise there is nothing wrong with this waiver as my son and wife own less than five acres of land,” said Mand. Another SGPC member, Makhan Singh Nangal, has got a loan waiver of Rs1,66,618.

While Mantar Singh Brar is demanding registration of a criminal case against those who ‘hatched a conspiracy’ to include his mother’s name in the list of beneficiaries, the Cooperative and Revenue Departments are planning to verify the authenticity of the self-declaration-cum-affidavits given by all beneficiaries, suspecting some of these being false.

Rajiv Prashar, Deputy Commissioner, Faridkot, said the departments were re-checking the declarations.

Meanwhile, insiders in the Cooperative Department said there were some suspected cases wherein students in foreign countries were given benefit of loan waiver. Their fathers gave undertakings with these students’ fake signatures.

“The department does not verify the authenticity of affidavits on its own. We seek objections from the public but rarely any objections are raised as people fear it will lead to enmity,” the sources said.