Chandigarh: The Punjab government today cleared 1.15 lakh more cases of loan waiver of farmers amounting to Rs 580 crore, an official spokesperson said. The amount will be disbursed before January 31.  

Chief Minister Amarinder Singh reviewed the progress in implementing the farm debt waiver scheme he had launched in Mansa district on Sunday during a meeting with officials and ministers, including Finance Minister Manpreet Badal.  

After the waiver certificates are disbursed to the 1.15 lakh farnmers, the state government would cover 1.60 lakh small and marginal farmers with a loan amount of Rs 748 crore. 

The spokesperson said the modalities for disbursing the amount were being worked out. The officials decided in favour of publicly presenting the certificates to farmers to ensure they are not misled by opposition parties or a few kisan unions seeking to promote a "false propaganda", according to the spokesperson.   

Singh asked officials to ensure the disbursement process is smooth and no eligible farmer was left out of the process. He said no lapse by government officials in efficiently implementing the scheme would be tolerated, the spokesperson added. 

In the first phase of the scheme, the government is waiving loans taken by farmers from cooperative institutions. The process would be completed in four phases, and commercial, private and nationalised banks will be covered in the later phases. PTI