The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today said the Congress government was lying and deceiving farmers by claiming it had prohibited ‘kurki’ of farmer lands to retrieve loans by banks, when the same was continuing across the State.In a statement here, SAD senior vice president and mp Ranjit Singh Brahmpura and Spokesman Virsa Singh Valtoha said in a shocking development yesterday, farmer Nirvair Singh tried to strangulate himself when bank officials initiated the process to auction off his land for defaulting on an Rs three lakh loan.“The auction, for which public notice had also been pasted in the village, was put off when farmers protested against the same but scores of farmers are facing auctioning of their assets by bank officials”.The Akali leaders said this was happening despite the much touted slogan of “karja kurki khatam fasal di poori rakam” initiated by the Congress party. They said chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh had made public announcements, including that in the Vidhan Sabha, that no notices were being sent to defaulting farmers for auctioning of their property and that banks had been given clear instructions not to approach farmers to recover loans. “Even the State cabinet took a decision to this effect but it has had no effect on the ground”.
Mr Brahmpura said ongoing ‘kurki’ proceedings initiated against farmers proved that all these assurances were on paper only and that the government had been lying while stating that no notices had been sent to any farmer to recover past loans through auctioning of their properties.The Akali leaders said there was another aspect to the case. “The kurki proceedings have been started against farmers during the present Congress government’s tenure and were not done earlier. They said Capt Amarinder Singh had himself corroborated this fact. He said the CM had while replying to a question about implementation of the kurki clause by Akali mla Harinderpal Chadumajra in the Vidhan Sabha, stated that this clause was not been enforced since 1986. “If this is the case and you have admitted it as so then why are you enforcing this clause now and initiating process to auction off properties of defaulting farmers? ”, the Akali leaders asked.Both Mr Brahmpura and Mr Valtoha appealed to farmers not to let any bank officials enforce kurki proceedings in the State. “SAD workers will also stand with farmers and not allow any property of any farmer to be auctioned under any circumstances”, they added.