Chandigarh: Terming the launch of farm debt- waiver scheme by the Punjab government a "sham", AAP today held a protest in Mansa, even as the police detained some of the agitators when they tried to march towards the main venue of the event being held to launch the scheme. Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal alleged that the Congress government has defrauded state farmers and betrayed their trust by giving them a Rs 167 crore crop loan waiver after promising a comprehensive Rs 90,000 crore relief. 

Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today launched the scheme and said 5.63 lakh farmers in the state would benefit in the first phase, which will provide relief to the tune of Rs 2,700 crore. Led by the AAP's senior leaders Sukhpal Singh Khaira and Aman Arora, some farmers and party activists held the protest in Mansa. The AAP activists, carrying black flags and placards, raised slogans against the Congress government. 

Khaira, who is the Leader of Opposition in the Punjab Assembly, said there was resentment among small and marginal farmers, who feel "deceived and cheated" by the Congress government on the scheme. He claimed that ahead of last year's Assembly polls, the Congress promised complete waiver of both institutional and non-institutional loans, but after forming government, it went on the promise of complete debt waiver. "The loan waiver exercise announced by the state government is all sham and the farmers in the state have been cheated in the name of debt waiver," Khaira alleged. 

As the protesters tried to march towards the venue and jump the barricades, they were detained for security reasons, the police said. Before being asked to board a police bus as the protesters were detained, Khaira told reporters, "We have been detained. We wanted to highlight the plight of farmers. We did not break the law." He said the party would call an emergency meeting to decide on the future course of action on the debt-waiver scheme and farmers' issues. 

Hitting out at the Congress government, Badal said, "What is shocking is that 70 per cent of small and marginal farmers of the five districts of Malwa, where the bogus scheme was rolled out today, had been made ineligible for the same." "The entire exercise is riddled with favouritism, with Congress legislators and Halqa in-charges making the lists at their residences, keeping genuine beneficiaries out of its purview," he said in a statement here.